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t last year’s Croakerfest Parade, Jerome Parker got to wondering why the town didn’t have a model of the steamer that gave Oriental its name. In September, he got to work making one.

Monday, he gave the model to the Oriental History Museum.

The “Oriental” in the window of the History Museum.

The “Oriental”. The steamstack midship is the one that can still be seen, almost 150 years later, in the surf near Pea Island

Jerome Parker, putting the flags atop the masts. One carried the letter “O”, the other was a Spanish flag from the days when the “Oriental” was bound for Cuba. A drawing of the “Oriental” on the back of the T-shirt Grace Evans is wearing.

Jerome Parker and the aft end of the “Oriental” that he built. His son Bob gave him the 1-1/2” tall figures which are made for model railroads. Bob says they are “O” gauge size.

The bow of the “Oriental”. Jerome Parker says he’s reworking the nameplate. It was the nameplate of the 1862 shipwreck that Rebecca Midyette recalled in the late 1890’s when the town was looking for a name.

Posted Tuesday April 14, 2009 by Melinda Penkava