Talk:Otter (1795 ship)

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A fact from Otter (1795 ship) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 13 August 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the voyages of the Otter crossing the Pacific Ocean from Australia and becoming the first vessel of the United States to enter a Californian port in 1796 were chronicled by French traveler Pierre François Péron?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/August.

Wikipedia

Wrong Dorr?

I am concerned that the wrong Ebenezer Dorr is being credited. The Captain Ebenezer Dorr who was active in the Pacific trade of the 1790's wrote an affidavit in Roxbury MA dated Nov 16, 1839 in which he says under oath that he is 76 years of age. This would make him 12 at the time of Paul Revere's ride, and clearly not dead in 1809. This was published in full in "The Historical Magazine, Notes and Queries, Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America" V.3 Second Series, Henry B. Dawson, 1870. Cranberrydavid (talk) 17:19, 11 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Most of the sources used in this article are available online. You should compare them to each other and see if they agree either way. Brad (talk) 01:03, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, those references all seem to refer to Ebenezer Dorr Sr., rather than his son Ebenezer Dorr, Jr. I don't see anything to suggest that the captain of the Otter was the father, and the son was famous in the Northwest trade. Here is a link to the affidavit of the son I mentioned: http://books.google.com.au/books?ei=HNy9TsjUG4Xf0QGTktGDDQ&ct=result&id=-3wFAAAAQAAJ&dq=the+historical+magazine+and+notes+and+queries+kendrick+september+1870&jtp=171 There is more info on E. Dorr, Jr. in Ingraham's Journal of the Brigantine Hope: http://www.amazon.com/Ingrahams-Journal-Brigantine-Northwest-1790-1792/dp/0876360185 and in the Ebenezer Dorr manuscript (unpublished) at the John Carter Brown Library, Providence RI. Would this be sufficient documentation to warrant a change to the article (I'm a newbie here)? Cranberrydavid (talk) 03:09, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know enough about these people to figure this out, although our page's references don't seem very good for clarifying things. I found this old book, which may or may not be relevant. It was not Capt. Dawes of New York, but Capt. Dorr of Boston, who commanded The Otter. Pfly (talk) 03:31, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also, that affidavit seems good evidence that the Dorr, captain of The Otter, was not the Dorr who rode from Boston like Paul Revere in 1775. Wikipedia frowns on using primary sources, but in this case the source is not affirming something but casting doubt. Pfly (talk) 03:36, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I should also point out that this article is hardly about a ship but more about an incident. Maybe the best thing would be to create a bio article for Dorr. The article on Thomas Muir (political reformer) contains a lot of information that is only repeated here. Brad (talk) 06:54, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Heh, Well... the Thomas Muir article is one giant copyvio and it's now marked accordingly. Brad (talk) 07:20, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As original author, I would be delighted if someone could work out which Dorr is which. I looked at some of the online sources again and it is not clear. I agree that there is doubt about father / son and will not be offended if anyone makes changes. I tweaked the article to emphasise that the rescue of Muir was an incident related to the Otter to put this into better context.AWHS (talk) 08:57, 12 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]