Topic starter
26/01/2008 1:54 am
I am looking for interior plans for the USS Octorara, a sidewheel gunboat built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1861. I recently acquired a sea captain's desk which has the word Octorara written in pencil on the bottom board.
I do some furniture restoration and date the desk to the mid 19th century. The primary wood is walnut and the secondary wood is white pine which leads me to believe in a New England origin. The desk is built at an angle - designed to fit into a specific area.
Are there any plans for these sidewheelers built in New York?
26/01/2008 8:16 pm
Hi, Paul:
Saw your appeal for plans etc. on USS OCTORARA, sidewheel gunboat, 1861. I pulled some data here and then went on line. S&D's John Fryant, master model builder, posts on this site and may have some further leads to help you from his long career in Washington, D.C.
*I found this link that may be of some assistance. http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/
Such navy/military sites tend to relate providing further leads. Keep us posted. Found the name of an ancestor of that period linked to the OCTORARA, 1861 and an old family Bible with beginning entries in 1773 confirms it. EUREKA!
Cheers,
R. Dale Flick
30/01/2008 10:23 pm
Paul
Lytle shows the Octorava as built in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1859 with her first home port as Philadelphia. vessel # 19084. Abandoned in 1899. National Archives should have her registrations If you are close to Philadelphia contact the Nat Archives branch there and get registered and you can go in and look at the registrations. The Dictionary of Transports and Combatant vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Union Army 1861-1868 show her only as a chartered vessel. in 1861-2 and 1864.
Carl Jones