DCHP-1 Online

canot du maître Cdn French "master's canoe" Hist.

• a large freight canoe, measuring about 40 feet and capable of carrying 4 to 5 tons, used for the voyage from Montreal to the Grand Portage. See picture at Montreal canoe.

  See also: maître canot  Montreal canoe  

  • 1828  (1872)  The Canot du Maitre was of six fathoms . . . measured within, and the C[anot] du Nord about four, more or less.
  • 1908  . . . the Canot du Maître, as it was called, the largest bark canoe made by the Indians, carrying about six tons and a crew of sixteen paddlers, and which ascended as far as Fort William. Thence further progress was made in much smaller "North Canoes" to all points west of Lake Superior.
  • 1963  The bateaux were concealed, and the whole party of twenty-five embarked in a canot-du-maître for Fort Mackinac.
  • 1966  In 1957 Mr. Bernard supervised the building of a "canot du maître" [sic] for the National Museum. . . .