Long adored Davis boat shipped to Alaska State Museum for permanent display

In the last week of February, The Center for Wooden Boats began the construction of a large 16ft crate to pack a nearly 100 year old boat, put it on a barge, and ship it to Juneau, Alaska. Even though this boat is now safely in the hands of our friends in Juneau, CWB still maintains a replica Davis boat that can be rowed on Lake Union by anyone adventurous enough to walk down to the docks and sign it out.

Perhaps one of the best examples of a Davis boat known to be in existence, CWB felt that its story would be better told closer to its place of origin. Procured by longtime CWB supporter Marty Loken in the 1990′s, this boat has sat in storage for over two decades. The boat was left alone never to be restored or used, but admired by all who saw it.

In 2014 the Alaska State Museum in Juneau and CWB began working together to get this boat into a space that can be seen by thousands of visitors rather than dozens. When the museum opens in mid-2016, it will be a central exhibit that pays homage to the resourcefulness and craftsmanship of the Davis family from Metlakatla, AK.

CWB will also be reproducing a monograph about this boat and the story of the family the was written by Mr. Loken in the early 1980’s.

Please enjoy this article from our archives written by Rich Kolin in 2003

The Davis Family, Boat builders of Metlakatla, Alaska

By Rich Kolin

The history of traditional small craft in America is replete with the stories of enterprising families who, through their talents and energies, made important contributions to our small craft heritage. Many are unsung and deserve to be recognized. One such family is the Davis family of Metlakatla, Alaska. Made up of three generations of Tsimshian Indians, this remarkable family designed and built beautiful and practical workboats that were an important part of the Northwest boating scene from the turn of the 19th century to the early 1960’s. In 1981 the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle published a marvelous monograph written by Marty Loken, which told this family’s story. Unfortunately it is out of print. It served as the major source for this article.

Grandfather John Davis started out his boatbuilding business as a part time builder of skiffs in Vancouver, BC in the late 1880’s. The Great Seattle Fire of 1889 drew him south to help rebuilt the city. It was the Alaskan gold rush in the late 1890’s that gave him his start. John and his son Rod spent three summers at Lake Lindeman and Lake Bennet building boats for the miners who needed to transport their supplies down the Yukon River to the goldfields. Working with hand tools alone and newly felled trees they built rough barges and rowboats. Diligently saving the money from this work they were able to set up a boat building business in Metlakatla, Alaska, a new community of Tsimshian Indians founded by a missionary, Father William Duncan. Duncan designed the community around the economy and culture of the United States with the concept that it would be self-supporting. Under this premise Father Duncan got the U.S. Congress to cede 86,000 acres to the Metlakatla Indians. This was the first land grant reservation in the Alaskan territory.

John and Rod became an important link in the local economy by founding a sawmill, boatyard, general store, and fish saltery. John Sr. was the master boat builder, Rod turned out to be an enterprising businessman selling boats and eventually branching out into a bowling alley and a movie theater. John and Rod sold their boats through a network of agents in many of the major coastal towns and villages. These agents were usually postmasters and owners of the local general store. When grandson John Jr. was old enough, he went to Seattle to attend a trade school to learn boat design and helped the family business by designing fishing boats.

The family built sealing boats, skiffs, and lighthouse tenders. THeir big hit was a double-ended boat, which began a new hand trolling salmon fishery on the Alaskan coast. These popular boats were 14 to 18 feet long and resembled the Maine peapod although their design influence came from the sealing boats. With the introduction of outboard motors, the Davis family came out with a new design, the square sterned Davis Boat. This design was a transition between the time of oar propulsion and motor power. It is not a planing boat. It is a displacement boat which rows well and is easily pushed by a low powered outboard. Its sharp bow followed by flat floors makes for an easily driven yet stable hull. The high freeboard allows for a dry sea boat.

In 1999 I was fortunate to find a 14 foot square sterned Davis Boat being restored in Marty Loken’s classic boat restoration shop. I made several visits and took the lines off. In the spring of 2001, a class held at my shop in Marysville, Washington through the auspices of The Center for Wooden Boats (CWB), built a boat to those lines with a modified construction plan. This new construction plan beefed up the frames, added limbers and bent floors to increase her strength and longevity. This boat turned out to be all that I hoped and will be part of the rental fleet at the new CWB facility at the Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island, WA that will open in 2008.

In 2006, I received a TSCA Gardner grant to measure a 14-1/2 foot double-ended Davis boat in the CWB collection. This appears to be a later design, possibly coming along in the 1930’s. The original double enders had bows more reminiscent of the sealing boats possibly derived from whaling boats. This boat had a plumb stem and was designed for oar and sail. An early photograph shows both types participating in a race at Ketchikan, Alaska. The sailing rig was rudimentary consisting of a marconi rig with a long boom. All spars fit into the boat. It was steered by one of the oars using the outrigger oarlocks.