Topic starter
17/02/2012 6:55 am
Hi steamboat fans, I was wondering if any of you had any guesses about what this is. Its dimensions are about 17" wide by 7" high. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
18/02/2012 10:17 pm
Maybe it is a door to something - a stove, maybe? There is what looks like a latch at the top and there are pieces sticking out at the bottom on each side, plus a pin sticking out on the left side. Looks like it might have been able to hinge at the bottom and open to a horizontal position with the pin on the front preventing it from going completely down. Is it cast iron? I know - - it's a door to an antique pizza oven!
23/02/2012 1:41 am
I am leaning toward the ash door on a boiler fire box. or on a large stove in the main cabin. I could use either one as it looks like we are due for some cold weather here in our little valley;
29/02/2012 6:13 pm
Easy.... Paul Bunyon's belt buckle.
29/02/2012 10:11 pm
*RE: The 17" X 7" high mystery*
Steamboating colleagues:
I think John Fryant & Carl Jones may be closer in their opinions of the mysterious object 17" X 7" in dimensions. Had it been larger I would have opined the door to a coal scuttle chute once on the hulls of period steamships well above the waterline. An oven door possible for a galley stove or ash door. I'd opine, from the ornamental oval engraving/casting, 'possibly' from a period ship from the 1870 to on/around 1900 to 1910 era due to the hull configuration with 'spoon stern,' masts on the ship. Reminds me of a CUNARD liner of the day similar to their liner CAMPANIA. Who knows?
Home from several weeks on the rolling sea and settling in here at 'Ragtown.' Catching up on E=Mails, U.S. Mail, chores, errands. Saw no whales this run but plenty of porpoise, flying fish, sharks. Well, what do I know?
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.