Cookstove of U.S.S. Cairo

The original cookstove had been damaged when the ship was torpedoed on the Yazoo River and damaged again when it was raised a century later. Some parts, like the oven doors, were never recovered. Working from a combination of sketches, photographs, poured impressions and trace evidence in the case of missing parts, the company made new patterns from which the original cast pars were duplicated. Sheet metal duplicating the 1/8-inch boilerplate used in the original was used to reproduce the stove body.

The original stove, a Southern Belle of about 1860 by the Burton Company of Cincinnati, still rests with the tons of other artifacts raised with the Cairo and awaiting incorporation into exhibits at Vicksburg. The stove’s reproduced counterpart is on exhibit in Memphis.