When world war II ended in 1945, Mercury was ready with two new motor models. A 3.2 horsepower single cylinder called the Comet and the twin cylinder 6 horsepower named the Rocket. In 1947 the engines were redesigned with a much more modern look and a third model was added called the Lightning. This new model was a higher RPM, 20 cubic inch, 10 horsepower rated motor that many experts claim was more powerful and with a better boat propeller design that could outrun many of it’s competitors 15 and 20 horsepower engines. The new Mercury boat propeller designs and engine power began the legend of Mercury’s speed.
In 1949 the rivalry between Evinrude and Mercury was on and the performance war started to heat up. Mercury came out with a 4 cylinder, 40 cubic inch, 25 horsepower model named the Thunderbolt and was advertised as a 25 H.P. plus engine. This new model most likely had at least 40 horsepower and was “blowing the doors off” Evinrude’s bigger 50 H.P. boat engines at the time.
Mr. Kiekhaefer became annoyed with the notion that many people then believed that Ole Evinrude was the father of the outboard boat motor because published articles of Evinrude’s ice cream story kept popping up that most likely came out for Evinrude and were used as advertising for their motors. He hired a company to research old U.S.patents and they found out that Cameron Waterman, mentioned in part two of this series of our blogs, was selling outboard motors in 1905 that was 4 years before Evinrude. As a publicity move Mercury found seventy one year old Mr. Waterman in Detroit and gave him an expense free invitation to the New York boat show then and publicly honored him there in front of writers and newspaper people as the real father of outboard motor companies. He received an official looking plaque and was given a new Mercury motor. Needless to say this went over like a lead balloon with the Evinrude people at the show.
Dan’s Discount Props sells the best Mercury outboard propellers as well as Evinrude propellers or all other boat engine types at discount prices.
Nice Article about the history of outboard motors. thanks for sharing, the information you provide it is very beneficial.