Meet the Strange New... Morris?

[Kathryn Klos]

It was offered on the Maine craigslist as a 1950s Old Town, which it obviously was not. The Morrisy-lines picked at me, and when I learned we were only about an hour away from it, Greg Nolan, Fred Campbell and I drove over to take a look.

Got it back to Greg's after dark, so tonight I can only share the pictures taken earlier. Will take more tomorrow.

The lines say "Morris" and the splayed cedar stem says "Morris". No rivets in the stem, however.

Decks and rails appear to be spruce. Thwarts and seat-frames birch or maple. Note that the bolts are counter-sunk. Note that the keel is fastened at every-other rib. Outwales may be replacements... they are fastened with Robertson screws. Stem bands also appear to be replacements as BNM would not remove the last part of the cover-board ("king plank") to extend a stem band waaaay up onto the deck like this. And there is a nice metal Old Town plaque on the stern, with a portion of the cover-board removed to accommodate it (which is why the seller thought this was an Old Town) (the plaque will find a new home on one of my OT factory bricks!).

I'll measure the width/depth of the canoe tomorrow-- it's 16 feet long. In great shape-- no cracks or breaks anywhere--except for a missing bit of coaming. Seats and thwarts appear original to this canoe. My gut-feeling is that it dates to the 1930s, but I'd truly appreciate anyone's thoughts. There's a notion in the back of my mind that this may be a post-fire Bertie Boat. We'd know for sure if Joe Seliga had gone ahead and purchased one when he had the chance.

Yeah, I know BNM loved mahogany, but maybe because of the Great Depression it was expensive, or someone wanted a lighter canoe. And he probably went to open wales by the 1930s.

This canoe will be at Assembly 2015.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Adding a few more pictures...

 

[Dan Lindberg]

Kathy,

That is an interesting canoe.

The "straight" shape of the cowling is odd, as is the trapezoidal rear seat.
If it didn't have the splayed stem, what would you think it was?

Looking forward to hearing more as others chime in.

Dan

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

I don't know... I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but almost nothing about it looks like Morris - stem profile, decks, coaming, kingplank, stemband junction with kingplank, gunwales, planking, seats, thwarts, keel attachment. The only thing that looks like Morris is the stem. Thinking this is a Morris requires a huge leap of faith, unless it was radically modified or Morris continued on but did things completely differently (what's the likelihood of that?). Maybe someone decided to copy the Morris stem when building a canoe. Seems more likely than Morris doing things completely differently. In any case, it's an interesting canoe.

Hosmer

 

[Kathryn Klos]

The canoe may always be a mystery, and I appreciate any thoughts about it. Thank you thank you and keep 'em coming.

We do know that Morris was building canoes in the 1930s but we don't know what they looked like-- which may mean none have survived or that he was building canoes that differ so much from the traditional Morris that they aren't recognized. The reason I consider this might be one of those canoes (other than wanting to solve the mystery), is that Bert may have had to change what he was doing if he wanted to sell canoes in the 1930s, when he was building alone. Maybe he had access to his old forms-- but maybe not. Maybe he decided to go with open gunwales because the public expected that, and he didn't have access to whatever he used to create the pocketed ribs. Maybe he trimmed a boat in woods other than mahogany because a customer couldn't afford an expensive mahogany boat during the depression.

It's true that someone may have decided to copy the Morris stem... but other professional builders who have, did so using hardwood (as far as I know).

This is, at the least, a nicely-built Morris descendant.

 

[Greg Nolan]

. . . or Morris continued on but did things completely differently (what's the likelihood of that?).
Hosmer

What makes this boat a puzzle is that it is quite unlike Morris in many ways, as you point out, but . . .

Kathy and I have talked a bit about this, and I think it is pretty likely that after the factory fire, Morris would have done some, or many, things differently, at least in part because he no longer had tooling, jigs, and forms that had been destroyed in the fire.

Closed gunwales were no longer very popular by the thirties, and further, he would not have had the jigs that would have made constructing the pocketed inwales a routine task. He likely would have had to build a new form or forms. In effect, he had a blank slate, with no need to keep anything the same.

You are correct -- almost the only thing similar between this and most Morris canoes is the splayed cedar stem -- the constant feature on all Morris canoes. Rhinelander, which was pretty directly copying Morris, made its splayed stems of hardwood. The stem profile isn't exactly traditional Morris, but it doesn't seem exactly traditional anyone else -- and it does approach the profile of the Indian model in the 1893 Morris catalog. If he had to build a new form, maybe he went back to his roots.

So we have been doing some wide speculating, and have come to no conclusions. The canoe is very well constructed, and seems the product of someone who both knew what he was doing and had the skill to do it well -- it does not look like a one-off back yard amateur boat -- though it certainly could be that- there are skilled, careful amateurs.

So that's why Kathy has thrown this out for other speculation, comments and ideas.

Greg

 

[MGC]

Decks and rails appear to be spruce. Thwarts and seat-frames birch or maple. Note that the bolts are counter-sunk. Note that the keel is fastened at every-other rib. .

Kathy, hard to tell from the pictures and I am sure that you are probably right about the woods but to my eye from your photos the coaming looks like cherry. Are the seats, thwarts, decks cherry? The inside rail is as you describe, spruce.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

more pictures

A few more pictures. The rain has stopped and we'll take it off the car and get measurements and more pictures. I love that this may be cherry-trimmed.

 

[Dan Miller]

because he no longer had tooling, jigs, and forms that had been destroyed in the fire.

The Morris forms likely survived the fire, and according to their records and advertisements, were used by the Kennebec Boat and Canoe Company in the 1920s.

 

[Ed Moses]

Kathy,
Your picture number 8, close up of the counter sunk & plugged bolt holes for the center thwart in the inwale shows a significant difference in the grain/color of the wood of the inwale and the outwale. This 'ole lumber sawyer's prognostication is that the inwale on your "Mystery Morris" is ash and the outwale either cherry or spruce. The inwale in another pic shows that classic blackening of the wood characteristic of how ash stains where the varnish has been removed - another good clue. It sure would be a clincher to see the canoe in person to confirm this. I do concur with MGC that the deck wood and coaming sure do have that cherry grain look to them under pic magnification to 400. Do some additional close up photography and maybe we can better ID the wood for you.
Ed

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Thanks Ed! I'll get some more pictures, and we'll be putting the canoe into the water later today to see how she paddles. Gets more and more exciting, no matter who built 'er.

 

[Fitz]

The Morris forms likely survived the fire, and according to their records and advertisements, were used by the Kennebec Boat and Canoe Company in the 1920s.

Kennebec was known to have used some cedar splayed stems too. There is usually a serial no. involved though, I suppose.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

I thought that too, Fitz. In fact, I initially thought this canoe might be one of the Kennebec models when I saw the pictures on craigslist. Not that it looked like any specific model, but it sure wasn't an Old Town. So when we saw the splayed stem, I thought it might be one of the hybrids.

Could be that some former Morris employee built this canoe because he had fond memories.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but that boat has a very 'new' feel to it, from the overall build and what looks like recent (decade or so) blackening, router lips on seat, and the grain of the cherry. My guess would be a good copy built from Rollins lines, but call it instinct not empirically based. Feel free to shred away, and i would be delighted to be proven wrong.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Rain is good-- helps flowers grow. Appreciate your unshredded thoughts, Andre. The plan is to run the boat past Rollin in the next few days. Do his Morris reproductions have a splayed cedar stem?

Took some pictures of the canoe next to Greg's authentic Morris... and a few close-ups of the wood. Greg got some pictures too.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

A few more...

 

[Ed Moses]

Kathy,

Pic close up of the seat frame looks like the wood species could be maple. Close up of the thwart appears to be cherry. It is possible that one seat frame is maple and the other cherry. The other deck pic with the OT decal, wood looks to be cherry also.

How long will you and the canoe be at Greg's? I'm coming up to bird hunt with the French Brittanies on Weds. night and could stop by and look at it . Lakeview Plantation is just a couple of towns to the East. However if and when you visit Rolin, you will get good wood species ID.

One mahogany thwart on my 18' Morris has very similiar routed edges, albeit worn, as your seat frames. Rather insignificant and may not be an additional item to add to IDing it to a Bert built boat. The other thwart on my Morris is a replacement and the center thwart was AWOL, as usual.

I do have to agree with the "Canadian Canoe Burner" that this canoe does look rather new, wood just does not have the coloor/patina of a 1930's built canoe - too bright unless it has been totally refinished. Varnish should have darkened considerably.

Ed

 

[Kathryn Klos]

We'll still be at Greg's on Wednesday and probably the remainder of the week... would be great to see you, Ed!

Kathy

 

[Ed Moses]

Kathy,

I PMed Greg for directions to his house. Would be late afternoon Weds before I would be there and hopefully with enough daylight remaining. If not I have a good bright light. When are you guys going to Rolins with it?

Ed

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Thanks, Ed, for stopping by. We now know for certain that the inwales are ash and the outwales, thwarts, seat-frames and decks are cherry. We stopped at Rollin's yesterday. He believes the canoe may have been built by McCurdy and Reed of Nova Scotia, who have made Morris reproductions... this makes sense given the Robertson screws. I'll see if I can contact them with a picture of the canoe... even if it isn't one of theirs, they may point me in another direction.

At any rate, the boat is a very nice descendant of the ones built by Morris. Should clean up purty.