A List Of Standard Equipment Carried In A Hudson Bay Trade Canoe.

My sincere thanks to Russell Simmons for sharing this link with me.
Keith.

One of the two main types used by the Nor’Westers was the canot du maître or Montreal canoe, up to 40 feet (12 metres) in length, with a capacity of 4 tons (3.5 tonnes) and manned by ten paddlers. At the western end of Lake Superior, the goods were transferred to canots du nord, or north canoes, smaller vessels with half the carrying capacity but light enough for two men to lift across portages. Birch bark was strong enough to carry economical loads, yet sufficiently light to be spun away from rock outcrops with the flick of a steersman’s wrist.

Fashioned from the bark of the yellow birch the canot du maître weighed less than 300 pounds (136 kilograms) yet was capable of carrying 4 tons (3.5 tonnes) of crew and freight. Only an axe, a crooked knife, a square or Indian awl, plus some spruce roots and pitch (spruce gum) were required to build a canoe.

More information here: http://hbcheritage.ca/content/canoe/dash/full

Australian Canoe Making Workshop.

http://anmm.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/nawi-workshop/

The Fur Trade In Canada 2

Courier De Bois.

"The pedlers call'd Coureurs de Bois export from hence every year several canows full of Merchandise which they dispose of among all the Nations of the Continent by way of exchange for Beaver-Skins. I saw twenty-five or thirty of these Canows return with heavy Cargoes; each Canow was managed by two or three men and carry'd twenty hundred weight, forty packs of Beaver Skins which are worth a hundred Crowns apiece. These canows have been a year or 18 months out."

"Short, thick, tireless men who resembled fiends in the oppressive heat, their shirts off, their skins like heated copper and their long black hair loose with their wild, black eyes glowing like coals."

Anonymous French Officer.

http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/finna/finna5a.html

Aboriginal Watercraft.