David Thompson: The Man Who Looks at Stars

Transportation

Thompson did most of his travelling by canoe, on foot and horseback. Canoes were made with a wooden frame and covered with the bark from a birch tree. They were very light and could be carried easily past dangerous rapids and waterfalls. This was very important on the rough rivers he travelled.

Large or Small, Canoes Do It All

Voyageur boat and Chippewa canoe Copyright/Source

Freight canoes (canots du maître), also called Montreal canoes, were 36 feet long, six feet wide, and could carry 8820 pounds of supplies (440 cases of canned soft drinks). They needed 12 voyageurs to paddle and they were used on lakes and major rivers.

Smaller canoes were needed on narrow rivers. They were called North canoes (canots du Nord), measured 25 feet long, 4 feet wide, and needed only two men to paddle. Express canoes were used for urgent messages.

To paddle quickly, the number of paddlers was increased to as many as 14 men in a Montreal canoe, and nine in a North canoe. Owens, Ann-Maureen and Jane Yealland. Forts of Canada. Toronto: Kids Can Press, ©1996, p. 43.

Livesay, Robert and A. G. Smith. The Fur Traders. Toronto: Stoddart, ©1989, p. 28-29.

Elizabeth Simcoe Copyright/Source

Step Lightly
Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, describes the special arrangements that were made for her when travelling by freight canoe on November 9, 1793: "A Beaver Blanket & a carpet were put in to sit upon. We carried a small table to be used in embarking & disembarking for the Canoe cannot be brought very near the Shore lest the gravel or pebbles injure her, so the table was set in the water & a long Plank laid from it to the Shore to enable me to get in or out…"

Fryer, Mary Beacock. Elizabeth Poshtuma Simcoe, 1762-1850: A Biography, Toronto: Dundern Press, ©1989, p. 91.

	Elizabeth Simcoe also rode in smaller canoes: "I was delighted with the Canoe, the motion so easy, so pleasant, so quiet, like what I should suppose being in a Palaquin [a covered litter used in India]. We sat on Cushions in the bottom of the Canoe. The Indians brought us Strawberries not quite ripe. Jones's sister put them in a saucepan with water & sugar & boiled them & I thought them very good with my Tea." Fryer, Mary Beacock. Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe, 1762-1850: A Biography. Toronto: Dundern Press, ©1989, p. 142.