N.B. Museum launches 450-year-old canoe exhibit

A 450-year-old aboriginal canoe came to the end of its restoration journey Friday at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John.

The canoe is the oldest known water vessel in Atlantic Canada, built about 60 years after Columbus landed in North America.

For the past two years, the boat has been undergoing a restoration process to infuse the woods cells with a plastic polymer to keep the vessel from drying out and preserve its structural integrity.

The boat has survived these many years, mainly because of care taken to preserve it by the Acadian couple who found it and the Maritime conservators who designed ways to save it.

Jean-Claude and Ella Robichaud stumbled upon the craft about six years ago while walking on the beach near Val Comeau.

"I saw that and I said to my wife, 'That's a boat,'" Jean-Claude said.

Ella called several Canadian museums to see if they were interested in adding the boat to their collections but had no luck.

They were given one piece of advice keep the boat wet.

"We had a stream. We were lucky we had a stream at home," she said, "So we put it there for four years. And then the archeologists came over and took samples."

At that point she asked the archaeologists if the New Brunswick Museum would give the boat a good home.

Two conservation specialists, Dee Stubbs-Lee and Colleen Day, who work to protect Maritime history, quickly recognized the value in saving the canoe.

They also knew it was going to be a difficult job.

"It was a very challenging artifact," New Brunswick Museum Conservator Stubbs-Lee said, "It's about 17-feet long, it was waterlogged wood very delicate material, very difficult to work with and extremely heavy."

Because the canoe would be destroyed if not dried properly, Parks Canada Conservator Day designed a special tank and a chemical treatment process that took two years.

The treatment infused the cells in the wood with moisture without having to keep the canoe wet.

"So then when you dry it, instead of the water tension of the water evaporating, pulling the cells and collapsing the cells, the polyethylene glycol keeps the cells in its shape," Day said.

Now the canoe is stable enough to be displayed in the New Brunswick Museum.

MaliseetChief Stewart Paul of Tobique First Nation said the native community is pleased.

"It's a symbol that demonstrates the presence of First Nations people here for a long time. Historically, it's very important to us," Paul said.

The Robichauds were astonished that such a thing could be hand-carved with stone tools from a single tree.

They said they are proud they persevered to find the canoe a permanent home.

"And I think the spirit of whoever did the boat was with us. That it stayed intact for four years and that we finally found someone to take it," Ella said.

"And it stayed in New Brunswick, so it's great."