DCHP-2

canot du maître [< Canadian French 'master's canoe'] DCHP-2 (November 2016)

• n. — historical, Fur trade

  a large freight canoe, carrying loads up to three tons (see Image 1).

  Type: 1. Origin — These canoes, named after Louis Maître, the artisan who first made them, were used by fur trading companies to carry heavy freight during the fur trade (see HBC Heritage reference). At about twelve metres in length they were the largest type of canoe. They required a crew of ten to twelve paddlers, but could be carried by just four men. Also known as Montreal canoes (see the 1974 quotation).
  See also Gage-1, s.v. "canot du maître", which is marked "Cdn. French", and OED-3, s.v. "canot", which is described as "relating to the Canadian fur trade".

  See also: canot du nord  maître canot  Montreal canoe (Image 1)  North canoe  portage ((v.)) (def. 1a)  

  • 1828  (1872)  The Canot du Maitre was of six fathoms ... measured within, and the C[anot] du Nord about four, more or less.
  • 1857-1860  (1968)  On its transcontinental canoe route the North West Company had used the large canot du mâitre between Lachine and Fort William, and, from there westward, the smaller canot du nord. 
  • 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. . . .
  • 1974  Larger than the usual north canoe or canot du nord said by Turner to be 24 to 27 feet in length. A Montreal canoe or canot du maître was 36 feet long and could carry 65 packs of 90 pounds each, more than double the load of the north canoe.
  • 2006  Prices start at $650 US a foot and range up to $950 US a foot for canoes over 20 feet in length, which would make a canot du maitre of the kind that carried Fraser west in the fur trade worth more than $34,000 US.