First Stage of Canoe Construction: assembled gunwale frame is used to locate stakes 

 temporarily on building bed. Instead of the gunwales, a building frame was used in some 

 areas. {Sketch by Adiuy.) 



temporary thwarts being shifted so that the distance 

 between the gunwales equals that set by the measur- 

 ing stick. These two thwarts having been fitted, the 

 tenons are pegged as before, but in the shoulders only 

 one lashing hole is bored instead of the three employed 

 in the middle thwart. 



The second pair of thwarts is placed 30 inches, 

 center to center, from the first pair, one at each 

 end, and on the basis of this measurement the tenons 

 are cut as for the others. These two thwarts are made 

 of %- by 4-inch pieces tapering in thickness each 

 way from the center to the shoulder, where they 

 are a scant ^(e inch thick, the tenons having the 

 same dimensions as in the other thwarts. In width 

 the thwarts are worked to an even 3 inches from 

 shoulder to shoulder, but in the form of a curve so 

 that when each thwart is in place its center will be 

 bowed toward the ends of the canoe, viewed from 

 above. As in the first pair, the shoulders and ends 

 are cut to a bevel to fit the gunwale; at the 

 centerline they each measure 12 inches shoulder-to- 

 shoulder in a straight line athwartships and 15 inches 

 end-to-end. Allowing for bevel, the maximum length 

 is just over ISJ^ inches. These thwarts are drilled 

 for single gunwale lashings and the corner edges 

 are well rounded from shoulder to shoulder. The 

 distance from the centerlines of these last thwarts 

 at the bow and stern to the extreme ends of the 

 joined gunwales is 33 inches, so the finished gunwale 

 length is 16 feet. 



After the endmost thwarts are pegged into place, 

 the temporary stays are removed. At each step of 

 construction the alignment of the gunwales is checked 

 by measuring with the measuring sticks and by 

 sighting, since the shape cf the assembled gunwales, 

 in this case of the inner gunwales, is very important 

 in determining the sharpness of the completed canoe 

 and the fairness of its general form. 



The assembled gunwales are now ready to be laid 

 on the building bed which, for the Malecite canoe, 

 is 20 feet long, about 3^2 feet wide,*and is raised 

 about 1)^ inches at midlength so that the canoe 

 bottom will be straight when the craft is in the water. 

 The gunwale frame having been carefully centered 

 on this bed, with the middle thwart exactly over the 

 highest point in the surface of the bed, some scrap 

 splitplanking is laid across the gunwales and the 

 whole weighted down with a few flat stones. Next, 

 34 stakes from 30 to 50 inches long are prepared, 

 each made of a halved length of sapling. Around 

 the outside of the gunwale frame 26 of these are driven 

 in pairs opposite one another across the frame, about 

 24 inches apart and placed so that none is opposite 

 a thwart, except for the stakes at the extreme ends 

 of the gunwale frame, which are spaced about a foot 

 from their nearest neighbors and are face-to-face, 

 about 1)^ inches apart. All the stakes are driven 

 with the flat face about an inch from the gunwale 

 frame and parallel to its outside edge. Finally two 

 more pairs of stakes are driven at each end, the 



40 



