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Bill Riviere's canoe

Joined
Sep 13, 2015
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Location
Northern NH
Thought I'd post a couple of photos of a 16' Chestnut Prospector I aquired last Oct. I re-canvassed it this spring after replacing a couple of cracked planks, stripping the interior, and making and caneing bow and stern seats (original slats are too uncomfortable for me). I refinished the original slat seats and stored them away should I want to reinstall them at a future time.
The canoe was owned by Bill Riviere, a freelance writer, Maine Guide, and Camping Editor for the Boston Globe. One of the many outdoor books he authored was titled Pole, Paddle, and Portage. This canoe was featured in several photos in the book. The canoe was most likely built in the 1960's. I replaced the steel nails fastening the ribs to the inwales with bronze ring nails, as well as installing new silicon bronze Robertson screws in the gunnels and replacing the steel carrige bolts used to secure the thwarts and seats.Some of these fastenings were pretty much wasted to nothing. It appeared Chestnut was already beginning to cut corners.
When I got the canoe it had many coats of dark green on the canvas but I did find traces of the original Chestnut Gray in a few hidden spots. Although the photos in his book are black & white, the canoe appears too light to have been the dark green when photographed. I used Kirby's Gray Green as it seems to be very close to the original color.
One thing I noted while stripping it down was a noticable flattening of the gunnels in the area of the carry thwart. After measuring the thwart and comparing it to the dimensions given in two books on Chestnut canoes I found it was 1" too narrow. I made a new carry thwart of the proper dimension and after installing, saw the gunnels aquired a nice fair curve. The short one definately appeared to be original to the canoe. With all the different models being built, I wonder if maybe a thwart for a different model was inadvertantly installed?
Anyway, she's ready to get back on the rivers of Maine again.
Dave
 

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Nice canoe, nice restoration, I love that chestnut grey. Funny thing is yesterday I acquired for about $1.25cdn the book Pole Paddle and Portage, I mean I wish I could get one nice boat like yours one day!!
 
Although I have never owned one, a 16' Prospector (Chestnut, wood canvas) is one canoe I have always kept my eye out for. That's one nice looking canoe. It looks really nice with that color, a real Prospector looking canoe imo. I have 2 quarts of that color and was thinking of painting a Chestnut Chum that I'm restoring with it.
I like that you choose to remove the slat seats and replace them with new cane seats, but keeping the slat seats was important and a good idea.

I hope to see some pictures of the canoe out there on the trail, it needs to be used. Thanks for posting those pics made my morning, nice job.
 
Although I have never owned one, a 16' Prospector (Chestnut, wood canvas) is one canoe I have always kept my eye out for. That's one nice looking canoe. It looks really nice with that color, a real Prospector looking canoe imo. I have 2 quarts of that color and was thinking of painting a Chestnut Chum that I'm restoring with it.
I like that you choose to remove the slat seats and replace them with new cane seats, but keeping the slat seats was important and a good idea.

I hope to see some pictures of the canoe out there on the trail, it needs to be used. Thanks for posting those pics made my morning, nice job.


I've used Kirby paints for several canoes. They're nice folks to deal with, and will mix a color if you can supply a sample of the original. Unfortunately I only had tiny specks of the original color. I plan to get her on the Allagash in the next few weeks.
Dave
 
I grew up to hunting after an uncle gave me Riviere's " The Gunner's Bible " . As a child I'd stare at the photos of different guns and read passages over & over. Mr. Riviere wrote many publications which I followed as he was so knowledgable on every aspect of hunting ,camping & canoeing. He ranks up there with the likes of Rutstrum , Whelen, and other great outdoor writers of that era. Its great that it was acquired by someone with the skill and appreciation to restore it as well as you have. It must be pretty mystical to travel in his canoe. Kind of like riding the Lone Ranger's horse !
 
What a great restoration! Will be quite special to get it back in the water where it belongs. Pole, Paddle, and Portage is one of my favorites too. Really like the pics of Riviere poling up shallow streams while calmly smoking his pipe.

Can you tell us about those beautiful looking paddles too?
 
What a great restoration! Will be quite special to get it back in the water where it belongs. Pole, Paddle, and Portage is one of my favorites too. Really like the pics of Riviere poling up shallow streams while calmly smoking his pipe.

Can you tell us about those beautiful looking paddles too?
Murat V,
I'll have to take some separate photos of the paddles. One is curly maple, and the other bird'seye maple. Both with Northwoods style grips. I discovered your web page awhile back and have admired your paddles more than a few times. I've made several, but other than trying different northwoods grips, they have been plain. Trying to work up the courage to try some chip carving on a couple.
 
Funny thing is yesterday I acquired for about $1.25cdn the book Pole Paddle and Portage, I mean I wish I could get one nice boat like yours one day!!

In a similar vein Riviere’s “The Open Canoe” is another used book to look for, with a nice overview of canoe design, features and history including everything from birchbark to wood-&-canvas, strippers & lapstrake, aluminum, composites, Royalex and poly.

1985, but still an informative read.

https://www.amazon.com/Open-Canoe-B...qid=1472842342&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Open+Canoe
 
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