DORR, Ebenezer Pearson, sea captain, born in Hartford, Vermont, 13 March 1817; died in Buffalo, New York, 29 April 1881. After following the sea for several years, Captain Dorr settled in Buffalo in 1838, and from that time until 1843 was engaged in the navigation of the great lakes. In the latter year he became marine inspector for the Buffalo mutual insurance company, and acted as agent of the New York board of underwriters for the entire northwest. He was also for some time the Buffalo representative of many insurance companies, and served for seven years as president of the Board of inland underwriters. He acted at different times as president of the Board of trade, the Society of fine arts, and the Historical society of Buffalo, and as vice president of the National board of trade. He was the first to organize a regular system of wreckage on the lakes, and did much to improve the condition of seamen and to obtain recognition of their acts of heroism. When Jefferson Davis, as secretary of war, first suggested the value of weather reports, Captain Dorr, at the request of Lieutenant Maury, forwarded daily meteorological observations from Buffalo. On 5 January 1874, Captain Dorr read before the Buffalo historical society a paper entitled " A Brief Sketch of the First Monitor and its Inventor" (Buffalo, 1874).