'William
English Canoe Company' est. 1861 in Peterborough, Canada.
Cedarstrip canoe built by Wm. English Canoe
Company
(ca 1896)
Different Strokes
Although the Daniel Herald-Rice Lake collection
offers special insight into the operations of early commercial
canoe builders, the business founded by Daniel Herald was just
one of several pioneer canoe companies. Another
noteworthy firm was the Wm. English Canoe Co'y. According to
company advertising, William English claimed the honour of having
opened the very first canoe "factory" in Peterborough,
Ontario, in 1861. English was not remembered for a signature
model, such as the "Herald's Patent" or the fabled
"Peterborough Cedar Rib," but he was a builder whose
canoes were greatly admired for their high-quality workmanship.
A very good example on display is a William English Cedar Strip
canoe dating from about 1896. Today, cedarstrip construction
is among the best known of the early wooden canoe types. Originally
developed by J.S. Stephenson in 1883, the hull is made up of
long strips of cedar running stem to stern, ship-lap joined
one above the other. Near the gunwales, there is an aesthetically
delightful accent strip in darker wood. The hull is strengthened
internally by elegant half-round ribs fashioned from rock elm
and arranged on two-inch (5-cm) centres. On the beautifully
fashioned butternut foredeck, the maple-leaf logo of the Wm.
English Canoe Co'y is still visible.
[note: see http://www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca/english/collection/canoes6.cfm]
American Canoes and Their Builders
Two or three of the early American canoe builders
have been mentioned early in this history. Everson's advertisement
appears in several early A.C.A. yearbooks, the last one in 1892.
In the 1888 yearbook appears the ad. of Charles Piepenbrink
of Albany, N. Y. He built Notus, the canoe that won the A.C.A.
Sailing Trophy in 1886-87, sailed by R. W. Gibson, 1886 being
the first year that it was sailed for. Gibson became commodore
of the A.C.A. in 1888. J. H. Rushton of Canton, N. Y., seems
to have been the earliest builder of stock canoes. His advertisement
appears in the American Canoeist as early as October, 1883,
and perhaps before that. He must have been pretty well established
even then, as he lists four different models of cruising canoes,
three of them decked and rigged for sailing, and offers a 6-page
catalog of canoes and pleasure boats. Rushton and his son carried
on the business until about ten years ago. He built fine boats
and canoes many of which are still in service. Thomas Kane and
Son of Chicago, the Fulton Pleasure Boat Co. of Fulton, N. Y.,
the Bowdish Mfg. Company of Skaneateles, N. Y., Ontario
Canoe Company, and William English Canoe Company, both of Peterborough,
Ont., St. Lawrence River Skiff and Canoe Co. of Clayton,
N. Y., and F. Joyner, all advertised at one time or another
as canoe builders. Most of them built decked sailing canoes
only to order, though some kept two or three models in stock.
There was good reason for this. In the early days and to considerable
extent even yet, canoeists were and are as strongly individual
in their preferences as ever yachtsmen were, before the days
of one-design classes. Sixteen feet by thirty inches became
almost a standard size, but the designs were almost endless,
hardly any two being exactly alike.
[note: see http://www.interlog.com/~timgitt/hist/wilt_canoeing_under_sail.html]
Capsule History
The William English Canoe
Co. was established in 1861 by William English. He died
in 1891 and his brothers carried on the business. In 1914 the
company was purchased by the owners of the Peterborough Canoe
Co. who ran it as an independent company until sometime in the
1920's. The charter of the company was surrendered late 1932.
(by Dick Persson)
[note: see http://dragonflycanoe.com/id/english.htm]
