Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a tremendous piece of Confederate Naval history, the first piece of its kind we have offered. This is a London-made Pantograph which was made for the CSS Georgia. The Georgia was purchased at Dumbarton, Scotland, in March 1863 for the Confederate Navy. It was captured by the Union Navy in August 1864.

A Pantograph is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line drawing is traced by the first point, an identical, enlarged, or miniaturized copy will be drawn by a pen fixed to the other.

The Georgia began life in 1862 as the fast merchantman Japan. She had a round stern, iron frame, fiddle-bow figurehead, short, thick funnel and full poop. Having an iron hull, she was clearly unsuited to long cruises without drydocking during a period when antifouling under-body coatings were yet unknown. Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch, a key Confederate procurement agent overseas, would have nothing to do with iron bottoms, but Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury settled for Japan because wood (which could be coppered) was being superseded in Great Britain by the new metal; consequently wooden newbuilding contracts were not easy to buy up in British shipyards.

The Confederate States Government purchased her at Dumbarton, Scotland, in March 1863. On 1 April 1863, she departed Greenock, reputedly bound for the East Indies and carrying a crew of fifty who had shipped for a voyage to Singapore. She rendezvoused with the steamer Alar off Ushant, France, and took on guns, ordnance and other stores. On 9 April 1863 the Confederate flag was hoisted and she was placed in commission as CSS Georgia, Commander William Lewis Maury, CSN, in command. Her orders read to prey against United States shipping wherever found.

Calling at Bahia, Brazil and at Trinidad, Georgia recrossed the Atlantic Ocean to Simon's Bay, Cape Colony, Africa, where she arrived on 16 August 1863. She sailed next to Santa Cruz, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, thence up to Cherbourg, France, arriving 28 October 1863. During this short cruise she captured nine prizes.

While Georgia was undergoing repairs at Cherbourg in late January 1864, it was decided to shift her armament to CSS Rappahannock. The transfer was never initiated, however, and Georgia was moved to an anchorage 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) below Bordeaux, France. On 2 May 1864 she was taken to Liverpool and sold on 1 June 1864 to a merchant of that city over the protest of Charles Francis Adams, Sr., United States Minister to Great Britain. The steamer again put to sea on 11 August 1864, and on 15 August 1864 was captured by the United States Navy frigate USS Niagara off Portugal. She was sent into Boston, Massachusetts, where she was condemned and sold as a lawful prize of the United States.

The ship was documented as the U.S. merchant ship SS Georgia in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on 5 August 1865. She was reregistered in Canada in 1870. The property of the Quebec and Gulf Ports Company and still named SS Georgia, she was on a voyage from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Portland, Maine, when she was wrecked without loss of life on the Northern Triangles, a reef in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine on 14 January 1875 while steaming at night in a snowstorm.

The pantograph is in its original case which has a small plaque on the top in the center reading C.S.S. Georgia. There is a maker’s label on the interior reading:

WILLIAM HARRIS
MATHEMATICAL, OPTICAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL
INSTRUMENT MAKER
NO. 47 HIGH HOLBORN
NEARLY OPPOSITE CHANCERY LANE
LONDON

The pantograph is in fair shape and is similarly marked to Harris, London. It is marked with measurements and is in working order as far as we can tell. The case measures 26¾ x 5 x 3¼”. The case has some damage including the wood of the lid splitting near the top on the right, one of the two securing latches are broken, and the key appears to have broken off in the lock. The bottom of the case also appears to have some cracks in the wood which should be noted. Otherwise, this is a phenomenal piece of Confederate Naval history. Comes ready for further research and display!