Fessenden (Steamboat), 1 Aug 1883

Specifications for the new iron hull for the FESSENDEN's machinery are now ready, and proposals for its construction will be received at Washington up to the 30th of this month. The old ship is so very rotten that it was not deemed safe to put her in commission this season, in fact, the wonder is that she has not gone to the bottom long ago. The specifications provide that the lines of the old boat be preserved in the new ons so far as is practicable in the changes from a wooden to an iron boat, a deserved complment to the engineering skill of Messrs. Kirby & Peck, now identified with the shipbuilding interests of this city, who modeled and built the two cutters SHERMAN and FESSENDEN.
      Cleveland Herald
      November 16, 1881
     

The new United States revenue steamer FESSENDEN, built by the Union Dry Dock Company, of Buffalo, made a trial trip Tuesday and proved a success. The craft is 192 feet in length, 28 feet beam, and 11 feet depth of hold. She is a side-wheeler, with wheels 28 feet in diameter, and is schooner rigged. The engine is of the verticle beam type and has a 48 inch cylinder with a 9 foot stroke of piston and jet condenser. Her main boiler is 33 feet in length by 11 feet 9 inches in diameter. The FESSENDEN has been built under the supervision of Captain A.A. Fengar, of the revenue marine service, assisted by Lieutenant A.D. Littlefield and Chief Engineer D.C. Chester. Her Commander will be Captain S.S. Warner, late of the revenue cutter EWING, of Baltimore. Her crew will consist of fifty men, and her battery will be four 24-pound rifle broadside guns and one 30-pound pivot gun. Her station will be Detroit.
      The Great Lakes Marine Scrapbook, August, 1883