What type of canoe was used by the voyageurs?
Birchbark Canoe
The birchbark canoe was the principal means of water transportation for Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, and later voyageurs, who used it extensively in the fur trade in Canada.
How many voyageurs were in a canoe?
6 men
A north canoe with 6 men and 25 standard 90-pound packs required about 4 packs of food per 500 miles. A voyageur’s day was long, rising before dawn and travelling before their first meal.
What was the job of a voyageur?
Voyageurs were independent contractors, workers or minor partners in companies involved in the fur trade. They were licensed to transport goods to trading posts and were usually forbidden to do any trading of their own. The fur trade changed over the years, as did the groups of men working in it.
What was life like as a voyageur?
The men paddled from sunrise to sunset, heaving back-breaking packs of trade goods and furs over grueling portages. There were many risks, many men drowned, suffered broken limbs, twisted spines, hernias, and rheumatism. The voyageurs needed food that was high in calories and would not spoil as they travelled.
What did the first canoe look like?
They were usually skinned with birch bark over a light wooden frame, but other types could be used if birch was scarce. At a typical length of 4.3 m (14 ft) and weight of 23 kg (50 lb), the canoes were light enough to be portaged, yet could carry a lot of cargo, even in shallow water.
How big is a voyageur canoe?
Voyageur canoes are 36 feet (12 metres) long, 5 feet (1.5 metres) wide and carry 12 to 14 paddlers (and their camping and cooking gear and food) on multi-day trips. They’re very stable, seaworthy, easy to paddle and well suited to Lake Superior.
What did the voyageurs eat?
The voyageurs ate a mid-day snack of pemmican and biscuit around 2:00 p.m., while paddling. At night, they settled by the firelight to enjoy a meal of pemmican, dried peas, or cornmeal. Cornmeal was made into hominy, a type of thick white porridge combined with bacon fat or bear grease for added taste.
What did voyageurs use for shelter at night?
At night they took shelter under overturned canoes or in primitive tents.
What year was the first canoe made?
Constructed between 8200 and 7600 BC, and found in the Netherlands, the Pesse canoe may be the oldest known canoe. Excavations in Denmark reveal the use of dugouts and paddles during the Ertebølle period, (c. 5300–3950 BC).
What does Voyageur mean in history?
voyageur. / (ˌvɔɪəˈdʒɜː) / noun Canadian. history a boatman employed by one of the early fur-trading companies, esp in the interior. a woodsman, guide, trapper, boatman, or explorer, esp in the North.
What did voyageurs eat dinner?
At night, they settled by the firelight to enjoy a meal of pemmican, dried peas, or cornmeal. Cornmeal was made into hominy, a type of thick white porridge combined with bacon fat or bear grease for added taste.