Yak

The  July 1910 edition of Rod and Gun in Canada (Vol. 12 No. 2) features a descriptive article entitled "Canoeing on Lake Superior" by Frederic Goodson Higbee. Along with lovely images of the landscape, page 167 features a panoramic photo of the author's camp. It features a comfortable looking Baker / Campfire tent rigged up by the shore.




What caught my attention was the lengthy clothesline stretched out in the background set up so that it would catch the breezes by the shore. Though the image is grainy, you can see one end of the line anchored to the canoe with a paddle used as an additional height support. Looks like another creative way to use a paddle while in camp.

A painting by William Bent Berczy (1791 – 1873) entitled " Indian Encampment near Amherstburg" features a stylized shore scene. In the rear is a bark canoe and a set of decorated paddles lying on the ground.



A closeup of the paddles reveal simple decorative patterns...




One paddle looks to have a diagonal checkered pattern with red paint (similar to William Armstrong's art) and the other has half the blade painted in red. This is reminiscent of the bark canoe souvenir model at the MET museum and some of James Peachey's paintings.

Another Ebay listing of an antique paddle, this one a 70" paddle from Maine with a small Northwoods style grip and some blade damage...



Seller Info:

Beautiful, 70-3/4" antique canoe paddle that was found in Maine.The original owners initials are carved into the paddle, RLK.

Another historic painting from Lieut. Robert Petley (1809-1869) in the Archives & of Canada.


Indian of the Mic-Mac Tribe
Library and Archives Canada
The painting illustrates a hunter armed with his rifle. Slung over his shoulder is a long fishing spear and two slender paddles with flattened, elongated grips. Once again, faint etchings in the main paddle blade reveals some hash marks in a chevron motif. Given that Peltey was a Military artist, I think it is fair to assume that his work would've reflected a certain military precision and attention to detail. Certainly the paddle shape is consistent with what is found in museums of the area.


Closeup

August 2016 Update: Click here to see a higher resolution version of Petley's painting.

Here's a nice photo a graceful Maliseet bark canoe taken from Leaves from Juliana Horatia Ewing's "Canada Home" courtesy of Archive.org. The brief letter written be Ms. Ewing describes a day paddling on the Nashwaak stream in New Brunswick.


Here's the accompanying excerpt...

Last Friday we were asked to Government House for a picnic. . . . We went across the river, and by water up the Nashwaak Cis. (i. e.. Little Nashwaak), and landed at a very pretty spot, where we ate luncheon off such lovely old china I wonder his Excellency had the heart to risk it at a picnic!

The A. D. C. lent Rex his own boat, that Rex might row me there. I told him I must have a good wrap and got a buffalo robe to keep me warm, and sat like a queen in the stern. There were lots of canoes and a few boats. . . Coming back down the Cis it was lovely, half dark, and the canoes gliding past among the shadows. The Cis was very narrow and required careful steering. I got some new water lilies.

From the Splendid Heritage website, I came across a very old Cree paddle dating back to 1770-1775 and traces its origins to a George Holt of the Hudson Bay Company. The 68 inch long paddle has a long flattened grip similar to many Abenaki paddles and a decorated blade that was created by marking the sealant when it was still wet. A simple technique with mesmerizing results.


c. 1770-1775 Cree Paddle
An excerpt of downloadable notes from Dr. Ted Brasser, Ph.D. (PDF link) states the following:

The canoe paddle (NC0047) conforms to the type used by the northern Cree people on Hudson Bay. Typically, the handle is scarcely more than half the length of the paddle; in this case the handle is even somewhat shorter. This may well be the oldest Cree paddle in existence, and its decoration is more elaborate than on recent Cree paddles. Painted paddles from both sides of the Hudson Bay are illustrated in the literature. It is recorded that such paintings had a personal meaning based upon dream experiences. The zigzag pattern on this early example may stand for water.

If this really is the oldest Cree paddle in existence, it may be worth replicating in the future. The zig zag patterns would be very easy to reproduce with pyrography. So many paddle plans...so little time!

Found some more images of the artwork of Frederick Verner. Pevious posts here revealed that Verner illustrated some basic chevron style markings on his paintings of First Nation canoe paddles. This artwork below is entitled, Indians, Fog Bound and features some red markings on the ends of the canoe as well as the paddle blades.








A earlier piece -  Misty Morning, Indians Crossing a Lake  - dated to 1896 features a similar pose showing that Verner re-used his subject matter and paddle decorations. Turns out this piece of Canadian art also fetched over the estimate at a recent auction.

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Here's an interesting bit of historically significant paddle art. The David Drummond designed book cover of The Woman Who Mapped Labrador which details the amazing canoe journey of Mina Hubbard. Details of her route were superimposed onto the paddle for the cover art. If I ever complete an epic wilderness journey one day, this might be a great way to commemorate the trip.


Hubbard's sole motivation was to complete the journey begun by her Husband, Leonidas, who died on the original expedition. She blamed his death on the ineptitude of his traveling companion, Dillon Wallace and decided to avenge her husband a few years later by completing the journey in his stead with no outdoor experience to her credit. Not to be outdone by a city woman, Wallace also set out to complete the journey and a competition of honor ensued. Wallace seemed to have an aversion to using local knowledge and help, but Hubbard did not reject the concept. By relying on Naskapi and Innu guides she completed the journey first.


Dillon Wallace, 15 July 1903
The Virtual Museum of Canada has an online exhibit of photos regarding the first Hubbard expedition and the subsequent one by Wallace which has some great photos of the group with their expedition paddles and other gear. Note the length the paddle which might've helped with poling in the shallow, rocky waters, but I can't picture this being anything but cumbersome when paddling except in the deepest of waters.

Here's a shot of Bob Timberlake's 1993 painting entitled Indian Summer which features a bark canoe, pack basket, and green painted paddle.


Indian Summer
1993


Paddle Closeup
Description from his site...

Indian Summer was painted at Bob's new studio at the rock wall to the right of the guesthouse. The term "Indian Summer" refers to the mild, warm, hazy days of autumn that usually occur before the chilling frosts arrive. The birchbark canoe is just one of Bob's large collection of canoes and boats which is said to be one of the finest in the Southeast.

The paddle in the painting looks similar to this antique Maine paddle posted back in 2008. Not only did he capture the general shape of the grip, blade and spine, but even the weathering of the paint is visible in the artwork.


Antique Paddle from the Cherry Gallery

Came across this EBay ad (just 8 hrs left in the auction) for an antique Maine Guide style paddle with the following description...

Recently found here in Maine. A very old, entirely handmade and hand decorated, 66"long Maine canoe paddle. Initialed F.L.R. on one side of top of grip and Nokomis Bangor on reverse, this is one of the nicer antique paddles thatI've found in a long time. One side of the paddle blade is decorated with a polychromed Indian Chief & 2 crossed paddles while the other side is free of decoration. Made from what appears to be a soft maple, this measures 66"long and 5.5"wide at the middle of the blade. Alligatored varnish finish throughout except where varnish is worn down to the wood. 3" split at bottom of blade.

Seller: mctiques

My Arctic buddy Anne recently commissioned a paddle from me for a retiring school Principal who's taking up kayaking. While the tiring experience with my still-unfinished Aleut paddle had me swore off double blades for a while, I figured that trying out a new constuction technique would maybe make it worth getting back into the double blade stuff.

I found a great little page documenting traditional kayak and paddle designs built by Harvey Golden. His page on Replica Traditional Paddles has some wonderful photos. Inspired by his work, I decided to try a 17th Century West Greenland paddle (no.13 on his main pic). This was quite different than most Greenland paddles marketed today which are quite linear, narrow and simple to build. This one looked like two mini ottertail blades on an elongated shaft. In addition, Harvey's replica had plastic edging to mimic the whalebone edging used by many Inuit.

For this piece, I went with one of the lightest woods suitable for paddlemaking - Basswood, also known as American Lime (Tilia americana).

Now that I think of it, I could have easily obtained some authentic whale bone edging last summer as a huge Bowhead whale carcass (decomposing for at least 4-5 years according to our Arctic guides) had washed up on shore near our Basecamp on uninhabitated Somerset Island. My Flickr album shows some pics of the huge bones of this behemoth. The stinky mess was the source of our 30+ polar bear sightings during the week and wouldn't have been appropriate to take back as a souvenir. There were also some "beached" whale bones located some 20km inland and at 75m above sea level in a virtual arctic desert where the ocean once covered. Our guide mentioned a sample of the bones had been dated at 7000 years old and I'm not a believer in taking such dated and well preserved relics away from their site of origin (like some sort of whale grave robber).


Beached bowhead carcass; 7000 year old whale bones at 75m above sea level
Instead of using whale bone, I thought laminating a thin strip of cherry edging around the blade would be both decorative and functional, as basswood is light but not very durable. This would mean that the cherry would likely need to be steam-bent and glued around the gentle curve of the blades - a process I've never tried but seemed achievable.


The Basswood blank; Strip of cherry for edging
I figured I could Macgyver a basic steaming setup using some stuff in storage. Specifically - the single burner electic stovetop obtained earlier, a large metal tea kettle with cylindrical spout, and some plastic tubing. I set it up on a wooden plank layed across an open drawer in the kitchen so that the steaming tube would point under the exhaust fan to suck up the excess steam. With this rig, I ended up steaming a single piece of cherry strip that had been pre-soaked overnight in the tub.


The steaming setup
While the strip was steaming, I prepared the table with some waxed paper. I laminated this inside because the rain had moved in and the balcony wasn't feasible. With all my clamps layed out, I realized that I'd need a square edge to clamp properly. Good thing I had kept the blade off-cuts from my bandsaw session at the Carpenter's Square. Using one such scrap piece, I could clamp at least one edge square. By the time I had layed the glue down the centermark, the cherry strip had been steaming for a little over 10 minutes. It was already quite soft and somewhat pliable, so it was immediatedly bent around the edge, clamped loosely with trigger clamps, and then secured tightly with stronger F-Clamps.


Glueing down the centre line; Clamping; Underside showing smooth bend
An inch of cherry strip was purposely left to protude past the blade end because I intend to laminate a cherry tip after the edges are done. Normally this polyurethane glue completely sets in 2 hours but I'll be leaving the clamps on for a full day to let the cherry properly dry out. Given my limited number of clamps, I'll only be able to do one edge a day. But if the others work as easily as this was, the carving process will be good to go very shortly

MAY 8/08 Update: Part 2 has been posted