The Malecite canoe, a straight-bottomed craft 

 about 19 feet long and 36 inches beam, is used as the 

 example, hence the method of building to be de- 

 scribed is that generally employed in the East, where 

 variations in construction mainly involve the use or 

 omission of structural elements. 



The gunwales are the first members to be formed. 

 In the Malecite canoe these are the inner gunwales, 

 as the canoe will have outwales and caps. The gun- 

 wales are split from white cedar to produce battens 

 that will square \}i inches when shaped. The gun- 

 wales are tapered each way from midlength, where they 

 are \}i inches square, to a point 3 inches short of the 

 ends, where they are ^^ by 1 to 1 % inches. The edges 

 of the gunwales are all rounded, and the outboard 

 bottom edge is beveled almost % inch, at 45° to the 

 bottom of the member. The last 3 inches at each end 

 is formed like half a blunt arrowhead, as shown in the 

 sketch of the member on page 31. The gunwales will 

 be bent, side to side, on the flat as far as the ends are 

 concerned, so the blunt arrowhead is formed on one 

 of the wide faces of the ends as shown. The arrow- 

 head form allows a neat joint when the gunwale ends 

 are brought together, pegged athwartships, and then 

 wrapped with a root lashing. In forming and finish- 

 ing the gunwales, a good deal of care is required to 

 get them to bend alike, so that the centerline of the 

 finished frame will be straight and true. 



To take the ends of the middle thwart, a mortise 

 Ythy 2 inches is cut in each gunwale member athwart- 

 ships at exactly midlength, the length of the mortise 

 being with the run of the gunwale. In it, the middle 

 thwart, 33 inches long, is fitted. Made of a %-inch 

 by 3-inch piece of hard maple, the thwart tapers 

 slightly in thickness each way from its center to 

 within 5 inches of the shoulders, which are 30 inches 

 apart. The thickness at a point 5 inches from the 

 shoulder is % inch; from there the taper is quick to the 

 shoulder, which is Xe inch thick, with a drop to 

 % inch in the tenon. The width, 3 inches at the center, 

 decreases in a graceful curve to within 5 inches of the 

 shoulder, where it is 2 inches, then increases to about 

 3 inches at the shoulder. The width of the tenon is, 

 of course, 2 inches, to fit the mortise hole in the gun- 

 wale. The edges of the outer 5 inches of the thwart 

 are rounded off or beveled a good deal; inboard they 

 are only slightly rounded. 



The thwart is carefully fitted to the gunwale 

 members and the ends are pegged. Some builders 

 wedged the ends of this thwart from outside the gun- 

 wales, the wedge standing vertical in the thwart so 



that the gunwale would not split; however, it is not 

 certain that wedging was used in prehistoric times, 

 although it is seen in some existing old canoes. The 

 pegs used in this canoe are driven from above, into 

 holes bored through the gunwale and the tenon of 

 the thwart to lock all firmly together. Three holes 

 are then bored in the broad shoulders of the thwart 

 about 1 % inches inboard of gunwale for the root 

 lashing that is also used. 



The ends of the gunwale members are now brought 

 together, and to avoid an unfair curve appearing at 

 the thwart in place, short pieces of split plank or of 

 sapling, notched to hold them in place, are inserted 

 between the gunwale members as temporary thwarts 

 at points about 5 feet on each side of the middle 

 thwart. After the ends are brought together and the 

 final fitting is carried out, a peg is driven athwart- 

 ships the ends and a single-part root lashing is care- 

 fully wrapped around the assembly. 



Some canoe builders omitted the blunted half- 

 arrowhead form at the gunwale end. Instead, the 

 inside faces were tapered to allow the two parts to 

 bear on one another for some distance. The gunwales 

 were then pinched together and lashed with one 

 or more wrappings. Finally, a thin wedge was 

 sometimes driven from inboard between the two 

 gunwale ends to tighten the wrappings. The wedges 

 were usually so carefully fitted as to be difficult to 

 identify. It is probable that this wedged gunwale 

 ending represents the prehistoric form, and the 

 blunted half-arrowhead ending is a result of the use 

 of steel tools. 



After the ends of the gunwales have been securely 

 fastened together, the first pair of permanent thwarts 

 is fitted. These are located 36 inches, center to center, 

 on each side of the middle thwart, a distance that 

 determines the centers of the mortises in each gun- 

 wale member. Each thwart, made from a ^^-inch by 

 3-inch piece, tapers smoothly in thickness from the 

 5^-inch center to the ^g-inch shoulder. The tenon is 

 of the same dimensions as that of the middle thwart, 

 the width takes the same form as that of the middle 

 thwart, and the edges are similarly beveled and 

 rounded. The distance between the shoulders, taken 

 along the centerline, is 22^ inches, and the center- 

 line length of the thwart 25}i inches. However, 

 the shoulders and ends of the tenons must be bevelled 

 to follow the curve of the gunwales hence the extreme 

 length of the thwart is actually very close to 26 inches. 

 The worker determines the bevel of the shoulders by 

 fitting the thwart to the run of the gunwales, the 



38 



