New addition I'm working on for my sneak boat. Original F.A. Allen Forward Facing Oars. The only patent date is May 13, 1884, so it is likely these are of the originals same as first used for mounting on Reelfoot boats. The wood block mounts are only temporary. I will C clamp them on and do some testing on the water to determine the best location on the boat for the oars before changing to the steel mounts. They mount via a ball into an open cast iron base with a wing nut bracket over the ball, which I do not have. Instead I will be using early ford tractor radius rod socket mounts with copper pennys for shims. I believe they will work better than the original gunwale mounts. To leave the oars as original as possible I am going to epoxy and clamp the cracks and seal the wood as best I can without removing the original paint.





F.A. Allen was one of the first commercial call makers and did decoys as well.





I do not know what the markings could be for. Los Angelos could be a misspelling of Los Angeles or could be Los Angelos as spelled. California of course.
No idea what the L. P. H. designation is???? Almost has a military look to the markings.



I am hoping I will be able to mount the 1970s Pirogue Blind in a way to be used with the oars in place.

Your gonna need some wooden blocks and a punt gun.

It has a long front deck. It did cross my mind to put blocks on the front to cradle my Ithaca 10 GA while under way just for that effect. I also have a gold 10 so I could even strap in two side by side.

cool project, john...and you for sure should strap that 10ga to the front of your boat

Nice! I'm still successfully avoiding boat projects. I might get too "old" (out of shape) before I ever get around to it and save a ton of money and time, but it sure is tempting.

I think the tractor parts are going to work well for the oar mounts, though I may need to ball peen hammer some copper eagles for shims instead of pennys.



Next to figure out the gun mounts.