My personal interests.
Vintage canoe research project.
History of the canoe.
My wife and I possess a vintage canoe which was owned by her late father. I started in 2005 trying to identify the manufacturer, manufacturing date and history of this beautiful canoe. It has been an interesting, and at times frustrating, adventure.
My research has put me in touch with several wonderful and well informed individuals. (See the dialogue pages for details.) It is most likely the canoe was built by O. L. Hicks, quite possibly for use in his canoe rental business on the Humber River in Toronto, Ontario. This version, with the torpedo stem, resembles the design of his personal canoe which one of his grandchildren has donated to the Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough, Ontario. As best as can be determined, the canoe was built in the 1910-1919 period.
It is probable the canoe was a copy of a Walter Dean design. Both builders had boat works opposite one another on the Humber River. It is thought the canoe may have been part of the boat rental business of O. L. Hicks (and later his son W. J. Hicks) which operated in the Sunnyside Beach and Humber River area of Toronto. It is believed my late father-in-law first came to know this canoe (named Dora) by renting it on several occasions in the mid-1930s.
He obviously liked the canoe and made an offer for its purchase. It was sold by William Hicks who operated the livery business on the Humber River. The transaction took place on July 5, 1937 for the amount of $30 (Canadian). (We know these facts as we have in our possession the original receipt of sale.) Upon my father-in-law's death in 1996, the canoe passed to his wife. Upon her death in 2003, it came into the joint possession of their three children. It is currently stored in Ottawa, Ontario.
After the sale, the craft is believed to have sailed on Lake Ontario and the Humber River. In 1940, the canoe traversed the Trent Canal between Atherley and Port Severn, Ontario. The following year, 1941, the canoe was used again on the Trent Canal between Orillia and Port Severn. (Again, these are know facts as we possess the original season passes.) There was a family cottage at Brechin Point on Lake Simcoe (Ontario) and the canoe may have been based there for some years.
My father-in-law and his family relocated from Toronto to the Bay of Quinte near Belleville, Ontario in 1950. The canoe was used regularly on Lake Ontario.
In 1959, the family relocated to Ottawa, Ontario. The canoe was used on the Ottawa River and was transported on family vacations to various camping spots or cottages around Ontario and Quebec.
The canoe was last used on water in 1976. Since then it has been stored inside an unheated garage. As the photos show, it is in excellent shape. Sometime in its early days it underwent some modifications to its original construction.
What is documented on the other pages related to this canoe are details of the efforts to positively identify the canoe and determine the date of manufacture.
With respect to the builder, a section of this website is dedicated to his background and history. Within that story, there is a connection to the Toronto Humber Yacht Club located on the Humber River in a property previously owned by O L Hicks.
There is also a "sister" to Dora which was the personal watercraft of O L Hicks. It has an interesting story of its own in relation to the research documented here.
Date of last revision: 2024-11-18
Material Copyright © 2024 David Darwin