CANOT DU MAITRE canoe on French River

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

CANOT DU MAITRE canoe on French River

Post by aukepalmhof » Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:39 pm

Ontario's French River flows in an east-to-west direction, south of Sudbury and west of North Bay, linking the Lake Nipissing with Georgian Bay, the northeast arm of Lake Huron. Since this river brought the French to the area, the Ojibwas called it "Wemitigoj-Sibi" - a name similar to that used by Champlain in 1616 - "La Rivière des Français" - the River of the French. Hurons and Algonquians served as middlemen, preventing French to access to the more westerly tribes across the Great Lakes. In 1649 the Iroquois destroyed the Huron Nation and routed the Algonquians. This forced the French to move inland with the French River playing an important link in the expansion of the French fur trade. Whatever the destination, the French River became the "highway" to the Great Lakes part of the "Trans-Canada Highway No. 1". It was the path for the North West Company, a group of Montreal-based Scottish and English merchants. The company sent large canoes (canot de maître) from Lachine to Grand Portage at the west end of Lake Superior. With a crew of 8-10 men and capable of carrying 3 tonnes, they departed in May and returned in September, usually traveling in brigades of 10 to 20. The Montreal men (called "mangeurs de lard" or "porkeaters") met the "winterers" at Grand Portage to exchange cargoes. Normally the spring downstream voyage was a day's journey, following the River's south channel with two portages. Since the voyageurs wanted a route that protected them from the open waters of Lake Huron, they utilized the westernmost of the four mouths of the French - marked on maps as "Old Voyageur Channel".

In the left lower corner you can see a “canot de maitre” canoe, more info is given on: viewtopic.php?p=11813#p11813

https://postagestampguide.com/stamps/16 ... da-postage
Canada 1994 43c sg1585, Scott 1512.
Attachments
1994 French-River---Imperf-Top (2).jpg
1994 French-River---Imperf-Top (2).jpg (75.63 KiB) Viewed 431 times

Post Reply