DCHP-3

light canoe

Fur Trade, Hist.
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1

See 1952 quote.

Quotations

1791
. . . I consented to his departure, in consequence of which I made one light canoe serve us to come down.
1804
Payet arrived in a light canoe.
1952
In addition to these were the demi-canot, or half canoe, which might be twenty feet long and carried a crew of four to six, and the light canoe which ran from ten to fifteen feet long, and was generally used by the Indians to transport themselves and their families.
2

a fast light canoe (def. 1) used by the fur-traders for speedy delivery of officials, communications, correspondence, and special goods. Also light boat.

Quotations

1798
Mr. Thorburn set off . . . for the Grand Portage in a light Canoe.
1807
. . . it may go out to headquarters in the light canoe.
<i>a</i>1855
A light canoe . . . leaving the Pacific reaches Montreal in a hundred days . . . thus performing a journey of many thousand miles, without delay, stoppage, or scarcely any repose, in the short period of little more than six months.
1929
We were much disappointed not to see the "old boss," Chief Factor William Sinclair, aboard the light-boat.
1931
Ordinarily, however, a "light canoe" was merely one dispatched without freight
3

a birchbark canoe 25 to 35 feet long, 5 to 6 feet wide, and 2 to 2½ feet deep, capable of carrying some 1½ to 2 tons of goods, a crew of 8 or 9, and 2 or 3 passengers, used primarily on the waterways north and west of Lake Superior.

Quotations

1828
. . . the crews of two "Light Canoes," consisting of nine men each. . . .
1872
Light Canoes--specially made and adapted for speediest travel . . . were generally known under the name of "North Canoes". . . .