Contributing Editor Benson Gray has been kind enough to share his photos of his 1931 Old Town Guide model canoe. It is an 18 foot, “AA” grade boat still in its original green livery. The accompanying order sheet tells us a lot about the boat and its birth cycle.

The date, Nov 9, 1931 is the "Half built" date, as Benson explains for us: "This is...on the record because it is when the canoe came off the form and the serial number was stamped on the stem. All of the cutting and milling of the wood, bending of the rails, ribs,and planking, tacking, etc. would have happened long before the 'Half built' date." It was varnished and canvassed three days later, a testament to how effective even hand-crafted tasks were back when that was the norm. The fabric was filled November 16 and a second coat was applied December 31st. This suggests hulls were laid up and then moved into the next stage of building, instead of a boat being built by the same hands start to finish. Indeed, this is further indicated when the mahogany rails were installed May 16, 1932 by “Charloux,” and the keel by “A. Harriette” on the 18th. The floor rack—lengthwise battens laid down to protect the ribs—was added May 17th. Finally, it was painted, “colored” in their parlance, on the 26th and then its final varnish on the 26th. The boat was shipped to the owner, a P.A. Fraleigh of Newport, Vermont, on June 21. 

I did a little research on Fraleigh. While none of what I found guarantees its accuracy, I believe there is at least a relationship between the owner and the Fraleigh I found, if not the same person. First off—the boat was shipped to Newport, on the south end of Lake Memphremagog in northern Vermont. This lake has historic significance, being the barrier that blocked the retreat of Capt Robert Rogers’ rangers—Rogers’ Rangers—from Quebec during the “Seven Years War,” also known as the “French and Indian War,” between Great Britain and France in the 1750’s and -60’s. It was that war that established English colonial and economic dominance over both Canada and India.