A West Coast toy story.
"1951::Discovering a Toy Canoe and Its Message From the Past"
Photo Clip: Victoria Daily Times (1951) Victoria, British Columbia
On a warm spring day in 1951, 7-year-old Anne and her little brother David discovered a little wooden canoe floating among the driftwood near their home on Locarno Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia. Too curious to let it float by, the young siblings fished it out of the water to get a closer look and were surprised by what they found. It was a ten-inch toy craft that looked battered and weather-worn. Scraps of rag still clung to its broken mast, a clue that a sail had once guided it to their shore. The kids imagined that it was a child's lost toy and hoped that their parents might help them track down its young owner. But the little canoe had yet to reveal its whole story to the young siblings. Anne noticed a piece of balsa wood had been tucked deep inside the canoe's hollowed-out cockpit and curiously sealed with wax. She scraped away the wax and removed the balsa wood to find a note written by the boat's owner five years before she was born:
"Hello. My name is Peter Jamason, I am 10 years old. Right now I am sitting on the wharf at Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island and my Dad is telling me what to write. I am printing instead of writing as I am a poor writer. Today is June 29, 1939. Beside me is a small shiny canoe which you now hold in your hand. It is a warm day, and my Dad said to put the canoe in the water after I put this in and glue down the lid which is a piece of balsa wood from my model airplane box. Well, must close this note now but first I will ask you to tell the newspapers that you have found it because I am going to start reading them from today and looking for a piece that says who, when and where it was found. Thanks. Peter Jamason."
"1939::How to Build a Toy Boat"
Clip: The Daily Province (1939)
Vancouver, British Columbia
Constructing a toy boat was a popular summertime project in young Peter Jamason's time, and newspapers often featured instructions on how to build one. Just months before the outbreak of World War II, Peter had launched his toy canoe in Cowichan Bay with help from his father, but he was a grown-up by the time Anne and her brother found it on Locarno Beach in 1951. For almost 12 years, Jamason's canoe had voyaged through the scenic Gulf Islands into 20 miles of open water on the Strait of Georgia. With news of its discovery, newspapers across the continent told its story for almost a year, hoping that somebody somewhere would know the whereabouts of its owner, Peter Jamason. He was never found.