E.M. White Canoe Company

The transition occurred in the 19th century when canoe builders in the Eastern United States and Ontario, Canada, laid canvas instead of bark into a traditional building bed.

Later, builders in Maine adapted English boat-building inverted-forms technology, whereby an external waterproofed canvas shell was fastened to a wooden hull formed with white cedar planks and ribs.

[1] White gave an interview in 1901 in the Old Town Enterprise, saying: "I saw a man by the name of Evan Gerrish of Bangor riding in the Penobscot River in a canvas-covered canoe.

I examined the canvas canoe closely, and in a short time was able to produce one which was so good someone wanted to buy it.

"[2] White started building canoes at his Gilman Falls family home by boiling wooden ribs in his mother's washtub and using a horse on a treadmill for power.