Toronto Canoe History by Murat Vardar

[Glenn MacGrady]

This is a presentation given by our member Murat at the 2021 Virtual Assembly of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association. It is an impressively researched, sequenced and narrated photographic history of canoeing in Toronto from the 1880's. I can do no better than quote Murat's YouTube description:

"Urban Canoeing in Canada’s Largest City; Toronto’s Lost Canoe Heritage: A thriving wooden canoe industry once existed in the city of Toronto. At its peak, thousands of wooden canoes once graced the shoreline and harbor of the city with over a dozen builders, multiple social clubs and many liveries providing watercraft to the masses. This presentation will showcase the old paddling hot-spots of the area, discuss various successful builders and illustrate the urban changes of the region that unfortunately contributed to the end of this once thriving past-time."

 

[Gamma1214]

Very well done and interesting. Seemed like, every time they turned around, the builders & liveries were being pushed aside until they were all gone.

Really cool that some of the buildings survived. Makes me want to visit Toronto (for something other than the theatre).

Thanks to both of you; for producing it and for making it known.

Oh yeah, purist alert: double blades are pretty rampant around the 19 minute mark... might wanna fast forward to about 19:30.
(you're welcome)

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

There is no historical doubt that double blades were commonly used with early wood canoes in Europe (John "Rob Roy" MacGregor), America (many Rushton canoes), and obviously in Canada per the many photos and drawings shown by Murat.

One gets the impression from the crowds of canoeists and spectators, and the many fancy canoe club buildings, that canoeing was a more popular sport 100-140 years ago than it is now. Of course, during the early part of that period the "safety bicycle" had not yet been invented or become culturally popular, and for most of that period the common folks and young folks didn't have cars.

 

[Benson Gray]

canoeing was a more popular sport 100-140 years ago than it is now

Yes, canoes were much more popular then as shown below from 1917 near Boston. It was said that you could walk across the Charles River there on a busy summer weekend by simply stepping from one canoe to another. Similar images can be found from most urban areas in North America during that era.



The information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_bicycle indicates that the "safety bicycle" was first introduced in 1876. The popularity of bicycles grew much more slowly during the late 1800s and early 1900s than canoes. See https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/8986/ for a comparison of the popularity of canoes, bicycles, golf, skis, and kayaks based on literary references over time.

The concept of the 'courting canoe' did a great deal to enhance the popularity of the sport in the early 1900s. Canoes provided one of the few socially acceptable places where young people could get some private time alone without a chaperone. John Summers has explored this topic in some detail as described in his "Canoes and Romance" presentation. A version of this is available at

although the recording isn't great. The automobile didn't start to replace the canoe for teenagers seeking a quiet place alone until around 1924. See https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/2335/ for more on this topic.

Benson

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

The popularity of bicycles grew much more slowly during the late 1800s and early 1900s than canoes.

The bicycle hurt Henry Rushton's canoe business badly beginning in 1893, according to Atwood Manley's book, Rushton and His Times in American Canoeing. Here are excerpts from pages 128-31 of the first paperback edition (1977):

"[1893] was an unhappy summer for Rushton. Orders dried up. A competitor . . . shared awards with Rushton. More disturbing was a turn in the public fancy. People were more interested that summer in bicycles than in boats. The crowds milled for a moment in front of the boat exhibits and then moved on to gather in large numbers before an exhibit of Columbia bicycles.

". . . . not many customers came to see [Rushton's certificate of boat excellence in his office]. Potential ones were rapturously engaged in pedaling Columbia bikes up and down the street in front of the Boat Shop. People with cash or credit to squander on luxuries that year of the panic bought bicycles, not boats.

. . . .

"Business continued to slow in 1894.

. . . .

". . . . The bicycle proved to be more than a passing fad. Rushton's Canton friends, once reliable purchasers of his boats as the ice went out in the spring, were now, young and old, riding bikes through village streets and on country roads. One of his best local customers of former years and by now a well-known artist, Frederic Remington, besported himself on a Columbia bike whenever he visited his family in Canton. Remington's poundage was mounting dangerously in those years, and there was much more man to be seen than bike. In a letter . . . to his Yale classmate, Poultney Bigelow, then in Europe, Remington wrote: 'I am riding a bike—it's great fun— Everybody in America is riding the 'bike.' It makes the grease come out of a fellow and is the greatest thing to produce a thirst for beer—besides everyone can desecrate the Sabbath on a bike and be forgiven by other U.S.A.'s who all do the same. In that respect it is like going to heck—everyone is there whom I like.'

"It must have pained Rushton to see this familiar burly figure in knickerbockers wheeling past the Boat Shop and to remember better days when the artist had expended surplus energy in paddling a canoe on North Country waters."

If the bicycle hurt Rushton so significantly, there's no reason why it wouldn't have similarly hurt other canoe builders wherever bicycles were available and popular.

Remington in a Rushton canoe on the St. Lawrence River circa 1903:

Remington with a highly rockered birch bark canoe at a place and date unknown:

Remington drawing of infantry on bicycles in 1895:

 

[ppine]

Benson is right.
The Golden Age of Canoeing was right before cars became popular and available to people besides the rich. Right around the late 1890s until 1920s. If you were a young person and wanted some privacy to spark a young lady, the canoe was your best bet. Once common people got cars then canoes were not so important.

 

[Benson Gray]

Bicycles clearly replaced decked lapstrake canoes as the hot new fad during the 1890s but this was probably not Rushton's biggest problem at that time. Page 130 of Manley's book says "the investment in the Columbian Exposition hung like an anchor around his neck for years." The transition to less expensive canvas canoes was even more significant as described in Chapter XII. This would probably be described as a 'disruptive technology' today. Rushton was slow to respond and didn't get into that business until 1902. Gerrish, Carleton, White, Morris, and others had a head start of well over a decade by then. The transitions in the small boat business from wood to aluminum to fiberglass to ABS and other plastics were equally difficult during the mid-1900s.

Benson

 

[JohnSand]

I think also as the popularity of a pastime like canoeing increases, naturally sales rise. But there is a saturation point. Once a family owns a canoe, they won't need a new one for a long time.

 

[ppine]

What serious canoeist has one canoe?

 

[Aslowhand]

Yes, canoes were much more popular then as shown below from 1917 near Boston. It was said that you could walk across the Charles River there on a busy summer weekend by simply stepping from one canoe to another. Similar images can be found from most urban areas in North America during that era.

Wow! Awesome! I wonder if some of those canoes in the picture still exist....

 

[Benson Gray]

I wonder if some of those canoes in the picture still exist....

Most have been lost but a few remain. See https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/12325/ for the story of one that survived.

Benson