Abstract
The Batteau plat is a type of double-ended, flat-bottomed craft well known for its crucial role in the French—English colonial wars in North America. While many European boatbuilding traditions were transferred to the colonies, the New France batteau plat represents a specific type that spread in the context of New World fisheries and military inland navigation. Four examples of this boat-type from Québec City (Canada) are studied as a means to grasp an uncommon boat mass-production phenomenon. This chapter discusses the origin and evolution of the batteau plat, and demonstrates the model that was first introduced by the French in 1665. More specifically, it also studies the design method used in its construction as well as the technology involved in the wide board sawing process, either power mill sawn or hand sawn.
This text is partly derived from my Master’s dissertation, Les “batteaux plats” en Nouvelle-France (Dagneau 2002).
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Notes
- 1.
1 In French, the modern spelling of “batteau plat” is bateau plat, or the plural bateaux plats, which means flat boat. Both spellings, with one or two ‘t’s, were used in seventeenth and eighteenth century. Batteau plat is the boat-type.
- 2.
1 pied (foot) = 12 pouces (inches) = 32.48 cm.
- 3.
For more detailed information on the construction and dimensions of the craft, see Dagneau (2004).
- 4.
Archives Nationales du Québec à Québec, hereafter ANQ-Q.
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Acknowledgments
Thanks to Daniel Laroche who carried out the excavation of the batteaux plats remains and the preliminary analysis of the boat remains. Also thanks to Brad Loewen for comments on earlier versions of this paper. Any errors remaining in the text are mine. Special thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Society for Historical Archaeology for their financial support.
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Dagneau, C. (2016). The Batteau Plat of New France: Its Origin, Construction, and Design. In: Evans, A. (eds) The Archaeology of Vernacular Watercraft. When the Land Meets the Sea. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3563-5_11
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