unknown hardware

[David Satter]

Can any one help id this piece of hardware. I've done alot of canoes over the years and I've never run across this. Any idea what it was used for? 1 inch bronze ring on back of transom. 1950 old town square, looks origional and it's thru bolted with a backing plate. looks like it would be in the way of any motor. Dave some kind of rudder ?

 

[SWEETWATER]

it could be a modified oar lock, it might have been used to slide a pole or something into the mud or sand to hold the boat in place in shallow water

 

[David Satter]

the more I look at it, the more I think it's origional. nice clean new varnish under it when I took it off. it's actually worn a little out of shape , slightly oval. so there was some stress on it. inside is only 1''

 

[NedL]

Hmmm, ........ It really doesn't look like a piece of 'marine hardware' to me . In fact, I think I have a couple of very similar pieces at home that I have always attribued to being more like 'antique' curtain rod brackets. .... Just doesn't look like it belongs there to me. Maybe early on someome wanted an eye they could tie a line off to and had that laying around??

 

[crosscuts]

Maybe the fitting was to tie a net bag full of cold beer. I used a similar arrangement during sailboat races years ago. It slowed the boat down considerably.

R.C.

 

[Gil Cramer]

It might have held a support for a sculling oar so that a groove didn't need to be cut into the transom. It doesn't seem to have a large enough diameter for a duck boat anchor pole.