Ken McKay’s newly built expedition York, a large boat, measured forty-four feet in length (13.4 metres), with a beam of ten feet (three metres). Fully loaded it still only had a draught of eighteen inches (forty-six centimetres).
When Ken McKay decided to build his boat, he didn’t have far to look for suitable wood. The forests around Norway House have an abundance of spruce trees, the traditional wood used in York boat construction. Ken made good use of the forest’s bounty. Almost the entire boat, including oars and sweeps, is made of spruce. The ribs are the only exception. They are of oak. They were steamed and bent to shape in a homemade steamer outside McKay’s furniture factory in Norway House.
The hull is lapstrake construction with fastenings mainly of stainless-steel bolts and nuts. The caulking is hemp and silicone. In keeping with tradition, the hull is painted black with a red trim: Hudson’s Bay Company’s colours. The eight long oars and two steering sweeps are also red, to match the trim.
In a paper on the labour systems of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1821–1900, author Philip Goldring4 has reproduced lists of materials required to build an inland, or York, boat.These include such details as the exact amount and size of nails required, and the amount of caulking material and tar needed. For example: forty-four cartons of varying size nails; sixty pounds (twenty-seven kilograms) of iron; ten to twenty pounds (five to ten kilograms) of oakum; thirty pounds (thirteen kilograms) of pitch; two gallons (eight litres) of tar. The list of wood required to build a York boat with a thirty-foot-long (9.14-metre) keel is extremely detailed in the document:
20 boards 18’ [5.5 metres] long:
4 pieces 8” x 1” [20 x 2.5 centimetres]
5 pieces 9 1/2” x 1” [24 x 2.5 centimetres]
4 pieces 11 1/2” x 1” [29 x 2.5 centimetres]
1 piece 11 1/2” x 1 1/4” [29 x 4.4 centimetres]
6 pieces 12” x 3/4” [30. 5 x 2 centimetres] 22 boards 16’ long:
6 pieces 11” x 1” [28 x 2.5 centimetres]
4 pieces 11 1/2” x 1” [29 x 2.52 centimetres]
6 pieces 11 1/2” x 1 1/8” [29 x 2.8 centimetres]
6 pieces 12” x 3/4” [30.5 x 2 centimetres]
2 boards 13’ long [4 metres]: 11 1/2” x 1 1/2” [33 x 3.8 centimetres]
For Floor Timbers:
5 planks 16’ [4.8 metres] long 8” x 2” [20 x 5 centimetres]
1 plank 16’ [4.8 metres] long 9” x 2” [22.8 x 5 centimetres]
1 plank 16’ [4.8 metres] long 10” x 2” [25.4 x 5 centimetres]
2 planks 16’ [4.8 metres] long 12” x 2” [30.5 x 5 centimetres]
2 planks 10’ [3 metres] long 9 1/2” x 2” [24 x 5 centimetres]
1 plank 10’ [3 metres] long 12” x 2” [30.5 x 5 centimetres]
1 piece hewn to 6” [15.2 centimetres wide] x 3” [7.6 centimetres thick] x 40’ [12 metres long] sawn in two for gunwales.
1 board 24’ [7.3 metres] long 8” x 1” [20.3 x 2.5 centimetres]
1 board 24’ [7.3 metres] long 8” x 1 1/2” [20.3 x 3.8] (for keelson)
1 board 22’ [6.7 metres] long 8” x 3/4” [20.3 x 1.9 centimetres] (for ceiling [decking?])
1 board 16’ [4.8 metres] long 12” x 1 1/4” [30.5 x 3.2 centimetres] at one end and 1 1/2” [3.8 centimetres] at the other end for rudders.
1 board 16’ [4.8 metres] long 12” x 1 1/8” [30.5 x 2.8 centimetres] for stern sheet wings.
3 boards 12’ [3.6 metres] long 8” x 1” [20.3 x 2.5 centimetres] for stern sheets.
1 keel 30’ [9 metres] long.
The list goes on to detail the sails and the rigging:
Sails: 18’ [5.4 metres] high and 9 breadths of canvas, single seam, require 54 yards [49 metres] canvas #7. Plus 30 fathoms [approximately 54 metres] staple rope 1 1/2” [3.8 centimetres] for bolt rope with sheets and tacks.
Rigging: 24 fathoms [approximately 44 metres] staple rope 1/2” [1.2 centimetres], fully sufficient for two shrouds. 2 fore and aft stays and 1 pair of halyards.
Mainlines, should not be more than 2/5 of a coil of 2 1/4” [5.7 centimetres]. Whaleline equal to 52 fathoms [approximately 95 metres], but in seasons of low water steersmen ask for half a coil, or 65 fathoms [approximately 119 metres]. Painter needs 6 to 8 fathoms [approximately 11 to 14 metres] staple rope 2” [5 centimetres].
It’s not really surprising the lists were so detailed. The boats were built at the Company’s forts and, one assumes, the factor had to account for each nail, every yard of sail cloth, and for each length of rope used.
There’s a telling quote on the fur-trade era diorama at the Lower Fort Garry Museum near Winnipeg. Relating to construction materials, including those for boat building, it comments on the problems of two men cutting trees lengthwise with a double-handed planking saw: “Two angels could not saw their first log with one of these things without getting into a fight.”
York boats were sturdily built; strong enough to withstand considerable daily abuse. Even so, the early York boat crews, or tripmen, declined to take their heavy vessels over the more difficult portages on the Hayes River. Rightly they recognized the overland crossing would not be good for their boats. For a while, canoes were still used to ferry goods between some sections of the river, noticeably from Oxford House to Gordon House, on the Rock Hill River.5 The problems of portaging a boat weighing up to one tonne, and measuring anywhere from six metres to thirteen metres in length were immense. We would soon find that out for ourselves.
York boats were normally worked by up to eight oarsmen. The largest vessels, about the size of Ken McKay’s boat, or even a little longer, could have held as many as fifteen men aboard. Unlike most rowing boats, the York’s oarsmen rowed from the opposite side of the boat to their oar blades. This practice required staggering the crew left and right alternately along the sides of the boat. At the start of each stroke the men stood up, leaning with all their weight on the long oars to raise them up and back. As they forced the blades down, deep into the water, they slammed themselves back on the thwarts. The resultant noises: of the oars striking the water; of the oars leaving the water, and of the rowers smacking down on their seats, sounded like far-off thunder.
I have heard the repetitive drumming rhythm. On the Hayes I listened to it almost every day, sometimes all day. I have winced at the squealing and grinding of the wooden oars between the steel thole pins6 for hour after hour until I thought my ears would go on strike. It’s easy to understand why people on shore likened the noise to the coming of a distant storm.
The steel thole pins on Ken McKay’s York boat gradually wore down the oars. Traditional York boats had wooden thole pins, which also wore down as they wore down the oars.
Ken McKay’s only major variation from the traditional layout of the York boats of old is in the rowing system. Ken has his rowers sit on the same side as their oar blades. Just in front of the steersman, facing him on his left, sits the lead rower. Behind him, in the next three rows seated side by side in twos, there are six rowers. The final rower sits alone, with his back to the foredeck, on the opposite side to the lead rower. The rowing effort for each oarsman is, therefore, less due to the lighter weight and shorter length of the oars.
We know the old method worked tolerably well. Ken McKay and his crew, in their turn, have had regular successes in the annual York Boat Days races at Norway House with their system. Both methods are efficient and effective. The traditional tempo of thirty strokes per minute was regularly maintained