bastard canoe

[trans. of Cdn F canot bâtard]

Fur Trade, Hist.

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

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a birchbark canoe about 30 feet long and capable of carrying two tons of freight in addition to its ten-man crew.

Quotations

1832

Mr. Erlandson and eight men took their departure for the interior in two bastard canoes and a fishing canoe. . . .

1932

Between these two [the Montreal and north canoes] was a hybrid, commonly called . . . bastard canoe.

1952

The largest at York . . . was . . . the bastard canoe--which seemed to me an enormous craft for one so fragile.