Fur Trade Scotsmen

[Todd Bradshaw]

Lately I've been spending a lot of time out in the loft above my garage refurbishing and painting a 22' fur trade canoe that I built about 40 years ago. The goal is to get it put back together and up to the lake while I'm still young enough to get it out of the big loft window and down to the ground. One of the "upgrades" was to build a small flagpole to hang out the stern, and I have a small Hudson Bay Company flag to fly from it.

My wife suggested that I should make a tartan flag from some of our fabric. I told her that (1) even13 oz. tartan probably wouldn't fly very well and (2) that it was probably mixing different cultures, as the Voyageurs who paddled these canoes were primarily French. Just for grins though, I googled "Scottish Voyageurs" and it turns out that there were plenty of them during the fur trade in Canada. Some of them even eventually split off from Hudson Bay and started The Northwest Company.

I seriously doubt anybody ever paddled in a kilt, as the skeeters and black flies would be murder and I'm not planning on trying it either, but I certainly might replace my red waist sash with a tartan one for voyaging, and won't feel out of place paddling in a tam. Has anyone ever seen old paintings depicting Scottish Voyageurs and their outfits? I also noticed that there are now tourist trips in group paddling canoes to celebrate the Scottish Voyageurs on some of the lochs in Scotland.

http://argyllvoyageurcanoes.co.uk/




1976