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| Michigan Steel Boat Motor on eBay, pr... |
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robert
Senior Member
Username: robert
Post Number: 114
Registered: 07-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, October 17, 2004 - 07:44 pm: | 
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2494212090&indexUR L=2#ebayphotohosting |
audie
Visitor
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 09:39 pm: |
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Okay folks I've bought this engine and now I need help with the history of it and how to determine the age. I've never heard of Michigan Steel Boat Co. Have any of you any information please? Thanks |
steve fox
Visitor
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 10:03 pm: |
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There is a Michigan Steel Boat and Motor on display at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton NY.
The boat is 1910 and was bought at the Boat Show flea market in 2000 or so. Your engine looks like the one in the boat so it would be about 1905-1910. Michigan Steel boat hulls were made of galvanized sheet steel bent over cedar frames. The motor was painted black but the name tag was painted red. The restoration work was done by Dan Sutherland Boat and Coach in NY. |
richarddurgee
Senior Member
Username: richarddurgee
Post Number: 574
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 10:48 pm: |
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Audie
Good photos from 4 sides would be very helpful.
Many boat builders bought engs from eng mfgrs and put their own tags on them ! |
audie
Visitor
| | Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 07:25 am: |
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Thanks for the information. I'll take photo's of it as soon as I get it here and try to post them. |
Scott Peters
Visitor
| | Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 07:55 am: |
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Here's the company's history as I know it, but let me know if you find other stuff. I believe there is also another boat built by the company at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Glen Haven Cannery small craft museum, but it lacks the engine and is not identified as a Michigan Steel boat but matches the description.
Michigan Steel Boat Company [Detroit]
Michigan Steel Boat Company was a second company with the same name, along with another in Kalamazoo. Michigan Steel Boat Company was organized in 1900 and incorporated on December 27, 1901, in Detroit, Wayne County. Principals of the firm in 1903 were Hugo Scherer as president and Frederick E. Wadsworth as secretary and treasurer. Wadsworth was associated with the Detroit Boat Company. The company was located initially at two different locations in Detroit, at 280-284 Jefferson Ave. and 1256 Jefferson Ave. in 1903, and later at 1252-1270 Jefferson Ave. in 1905. It appears that it shared the plant and management with Detroit Boat Company and several marine engine manufacturers such as Detroit Engine Works, Thrall Motor Company, Columbia Engine Company and others. A portion of the plant was acquired from the Olds Motor Works, the first plant built specifically for automobile manufacturing. A 1905 description of the property called it �the largest steel boat building establishment in the state.� The plant covered a space of 1,200 X 100 feet with seven separate buildings. The main factory and office building was a two-story high cement block structure, complete with show rooms. All buildings had automatic fire extinguishers and a private telephone system. Motive power for the plant was electricity, furnished by the company�s own private generating plant. The company in its new location appears to have gotten off to a good start as it reported that 1,200 boats were built in 1905.
Michigan Steel Boat Company may have been the manufacturer of the �White Flyer� rowboats for Sears, Roebuck & Company in 1908. The boat was shipped direct from �our factory at Detroit, Mich.� and retailed at $27.50, including one pair of oars and oarlocks. A rudder cost an extra $1.75. The �White Flyer� was a 14-foot square stern steel clinker rowboat of �Apollo� steel construction, with horizontal plates. Sears advertised that the �bow, stern and seats of this boat are made of cypress, the gunwales are of oak, all finely finished in natural oak.� The boat came equipped with patented steel airtight chambers at either end for additional buoyancy. The hull was painted with white pegamoid, and imported waterproof paint, the same as that used by the United States Navy. The catalogue No. 6K8700 �White Flyer� was 14 feet in length; 43-1/2" beam amidship, and 14" in depth amidship, with the height of the bow being 22" and the height of the stern being 24". The boat weighed about 150 pounds and when crated weighed about 200 pounds.
By 1915 the firm had grown to include these managers and officers: Hugo Scherer, President; Frederick E. Wadsworth, Secretary and Treasurer; H. E. Cronenweth, General Manager; W. C. Rowling, Purchasing Agent; and A. M. Ratigan, Advertising Manager. The company manufactured a wider range of products by this time, �Boats, Motor Boats, Row Boats, Canoes, Marine and Stationary Engines, Outboard Motors, Auto Tops and Bodies.� The address and phone were listed as 1526 Jefferson Ave., Tels. East 406-407-408.
By 1919, the firm had moved its office and factory to the corner of Kercheval Avenue and Conners Creek, and was associated with The Wadsworth Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of auto bodies, auto tops and auto parts. Frederick E. Wadsworth was president of the firm, Mary M. Wadsworth, vice-president and H. E. Cronenweth, treasurer.
Michigan Steel Boat Company of Detroit, Michigan, filed its notice of dissolution on December 8, 1920.
Sources:
Polk, R. L. & Co. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1903-1904 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1903.) pp. 674, 1810.
Polk, R. L. & Co. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1905-1906 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1905.) pp. 842, 1973.
State of Michigan. Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics. Twenty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics (Lansing, MI: Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 1906.) pp. 373, 375.
Penton Publishing Co. The American Boating Directory--1906 (Cleveland, OH: Penton Publishing Co., 1906.) pp. 10, 351.
Polk, R. L. & Co. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1907-1908 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1907.) pp. 783, 2330.
Polk, R. L. & Co. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1909-1910 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1909.) pp. 669, 2318.
Polk, R. L. & Co. Detroit City Directory, 1909 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1909.) pp. 1548, 2825.
Polk, R. L. & Co. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1911-1912 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1911.) pp. 662, 2167.
Polk, R. L. & Co. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1913-1914 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1913.) pp. 575, 1839.
Polk, R. L. & Co. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1915 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1915.) pp. 575, 1852.
Polk, R. L. & Co. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1919-1920 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1919.) pp. 578, 685, 1941.
Rudder Publishing Co., The. The Rudder Marine Directory (New York: The Rudder Publishing Co., 1920.) p. 216.
Earley, Helen Jones and James R. Walkinshaw. Setting the Pace: Oldsmobile=s First Hundred Years (Lansing, MI: Oldsmobile Division of General Motors, 1996.) p. 51.
Schroeder, Joseph J., Jr. Sears, Roebuck & Co. 1908 Catalogue No. 117 The Great Price Maker (Northfield, IL: DBI Books, Inc., 1971.) p. 756.
Michigan State Archives, RG 61-11, Abstracts of Reports of Corporations, Lot 3, Vol. 4 (1903-1909). p. 340.
Michigan State Archives, RG 61-11, Abstracts of Reports of Corporations, Lot 3, Vol. 5 (1910-1914.) p. 378.
Fisher, Robert D. (ed.) Marvyn Scudder Manual of Extinct or Obsolete Companies, Vol. III, 1930 (New York: Marvyn Scudder Manual of Extinct or Obsolete Companies, Inc., 1930.) p. 944.
Scott Peters
Michigan Historical Museum |
ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie
Post Number: 420
Registered: 01-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 08:03 am: |
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The pics from ebay look like a Detroit. I have a Detroit that is almost identical. Possibley this is another example of a boat builder "rebadgeing" an existing engine. Like Brooks that used DuBrie and Thrall engines and put Brooks tags on them. I have attached the pics from ebay.
Hope this helps
E
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ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie
Post Number: 421
Registered: 01-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 08:12 am: |
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Pic 1
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ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie
Post Number: 422
Registered: 01-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 08:13 am: |
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Pic2
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ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie
Post Number: 423
Registered: 01-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 08:14 am: |
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Pic 3
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ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie
Post Number: 424
Registered: 01-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 08:17 am: |
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Here is a pic of my Detroit. Compare the flange at the bottom of the cylinder and the flywheel. The flywheel really identifies it as a Detroit and not a Termatt and Monahan. If anyone wants a better pic let me know. This is a pic from Calvert 04. I can go out in my shed and get more pics if necessary.
Hope this helps
Ernie
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bruce
Senior Member
Username: bruce
Post Number: 232
Registered: 07-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 08:50 pm: |
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Thank you Scott Peters for your summary on Michigan Steel Boat Co. You and Richard Durgee are valued contributors to OME with the valuable historical perspectives you both bring to this forum. |
Scott Peters
Visitor
| | Posted on Friday, October 22, 2004 - 07:37 am: |
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Thanks, Bruce--I love to make contributions at this site because I always know they are appreciated. I would concur on the Detroit Engine Works engine as an I.D. as the same guys owned and operated that company on the same premises as Michigan Steel Boat Company. I don't have any production data, volume wise, for the firm, but I do know that they employed 43 people in 1914, which might hint at their production capacity (or your engine's rarity.) |
audie
Visitor
| | Posted on Friday, October 22, 2004 - 10:15 pm: |
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Mega Thanks to all for the information on this engine! I really appreciate the response and history. It makes it all the more worthwhile to restore and show with the history of the company at hand. Thank you again, Audie |
bob walters
Visitor
| | Posted on Sunday, October 09, 2005 - 05:12 pm: |
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i have a 2 cylinder inboard like the one on your opening page top left. i know nothing about it, year, make, horsepower, etc. any info would be apprec. thankyou |
Audie
Visitor
| | Posted on Sunday, October 09, 2005 - 06:24 pm: |
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Bob, If you could get pics of it and post them or send them to Andrew he'll post them. It could be any number of engines that were made then. I would like to see it and try to help with the ID if it. Where are you located? I'm in south Louisiana. If you want to sell it please let me know. Audie |
B.C. Bob
Visitor
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - 06:37 pm: |
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message posted on Sunday, Oct. 9, 5:12. Thanks for your interest, Audie. Will post pictures soon |
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