Large Voyageur Canoes now available for hire at Femund Canoe Camp.
The Canadian Indians “invented” the canoe in the form we know today, but it was the French fur traders, with their Voyageurs (the picture) who first made use of this enormous canoe for transportation of skin and fur from the heart of Canada’s Wilderness.
On the first 3.000 km of the route, approximately 8 m long canoes were used by the Voyageurs (or “men of the north”), travelling down to Grand Portage at Fort William (today’s Thunder Bay). At that time the crew was normally 6 – 8 men plus large amounts of fur or minerals. On the way back the canoes were loaded with gods and provisions for the trappers and hunters.
At Grand Portage the goods had to be carried over land for about 15 km and then reloaded
in canoes of 11 – 12 m length (Montreal canoes, each carrying 3 tons of goods)
for transporting another 1.600 km across the large lakes down to Montreal.
These canoeists were called “pork eaters” and they met the Voyageurs at Grand Portage
in mid June for trade, but also often having wild “parties” there. This touring was
really hard and only for top quality crew, often 20 in each canoe.
Small and lightweight but very strong, young men were preferred. They had to be able
to carry twice their own body weight and paddle 80 – 130 km a day, from sunrise to sunset
to keep the job!
The goods were put in 45-kilo bales, which the men had to carry over
the portages. Each man was required to carry 8 bales across the portages.
This usually required 4 round trips to collect all 8 bales. The men would stop to sleep
at around ten o'clock and usually slept underneath the overturned canoes.
The Voyageurs sang all day long to keep their rhythm and also to help them keep their
minds off the extremely demanding work they were doing.
Very few of us would managed
this level of strenuous work today.
As a new offer FCC this year provides two large Voyageur type canoes for rental. They are of really large dimensions. Each canoe can take 10 persons and is 8 m long, but the number of canoeists may have to be reduced to 8 if you carry along much baggage or if you go for a long tour. Today it still gives a very special feeling paddling these Voyageur canoes, which are now made of polyester in a pattern from “Canoe du Nord”, which was mostly used on the upper waterways of Canada.
These fine “ships” are suitable for company tours; for large families or for
any group that just needs an extra large canoe. Smaller firms now could go on
tour with their entire staff in one or two of these canoes. Other user groups
could be school classes or scout groups.
It demands a certain amount of group cooperation to master a canoe like this and therefore it is ideal for teambuilding. When you manoeuvre, it is of no importance what each individual does, but what is important is what all the canoeists do. The canoe is so heavy that everyone has to help at launching and also when the canoe is to be landed. How do you get off an underwater rock in the river? If you are just two people it is easy, but if you are with ten … then everyone cannot be left to their own devices. When it all works well, and everyone is doing his part of the job, you will experience the good feeling of teamwork in large canoe paddling.
Specifications Voyageur North Country 26:
Length: 8 m
Width: 1,13 m
Depth: 0,48 m
Height, incl. stern: 1,12 m
Weight: 126 kg
Max. load: 1225 kg
Number of seats: 10
For more information please see the manufacturers web site.
NB: NEW! Price for rent upon request to bengt.magnusson@ha-nett.no
Please state number of persons and estimated tour length.
The large canoes with nearly full crew.