Native American Barge Canoe Paddle
Circa 1860
Width: 7.5"
Height: 83"
Depth: 1.5"
The whole backstory seems very strange to me. Never heard of 50 foot barge canoes before. My understanding is that the largest birchbark canoes (Canot du Maitre) used in the Fur trade of this era were limited to about 36 feet since this is the approximate maximum length before the weight of the hull would cause the bark to collapse onto itself. This is described by Canadian Canoe Museum Curator Jeremy Ward who built a 36 ft replica that was featured in a Ray Mears episode here.
The wide paddle blade at 7.5" is very inconsistent with narrow fur trade paddle that voyageurs tended to favour for their arduous stroke pace. This is also the first I've ever heard of the Hudson Bay company commissioning Penobscot Indians from Maine in United States (never part of HBC fur territory) to make canoe paddles for their fleet. Although, I have read about the tradition of Cree, Montagnais, Algonkian tribes in Canada assisting with the construction of paddles and canoes (particularly in Quebec). Maybe I'm missing something here but it is an interesting piece nevertheless.
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1 comment:
Right......"Barge canoe " indeed! (?) We are forever confounded with such mis-worded phrases used by pseudo researchers and (famously) antique dealers. The attribution of Penobscot carvers commercially supplying the famous HBCo seems dubious and unfounded. The use of these tall Wabanaki paddles (usually identified by their regional styled widening flat handles, whether they are decorated or not) can also be seen associated with their use by Native operators of logging company BATTEAUX where the Native men would treat the batteau as they did as a canoe (standing and paddling ) and only occasionally using the boat's rowing oars and poles of course. Nice blue painted paddle nevertheless.
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