It is debatable as to when the first outboard motors for boats initially appeared in America.
Some boating historians cite the year 1896, when a Long Island business named the American Motor Company produced 25 portable, gasoline-powered boat motors.
In 1906, Cameron B. Waterman manufactured for sale an air-cooled, gasoline-powered outboard motor. However, in 1908, it was Evinrude that fashioned the first outboard motors that clamped onto the stern of boats.
Yet, in 1928, two decades after the Evinrude introduction, some outboard motors mounted onto Lake George boats dropped overboard, sinking into the “Queen of American Lakes.”
It was the “Roaring Twenties,” a period characterized by many people exhibiting a “less-inhibited lifestyle.” For some, motoring around the 32-mile-long Lake George in the Adirondacks in swift and loud boats was becoming popular amusement. So, it was not surprising there would be some boating mishaps.
The August 12, 1928 Brooklyn Eagle Daily newspaper reported on the numerous recreational diversions for summer guests at Lake George, including riding in lively outboard motorboats.
The traditional wooden rowboat powered with a single-cylinder outboard motor had given way to an engine of two or four cylinders. The design of vessels that received these outboard motors was characterized by being a light and speedy craft.
The Brooklyn newspaper disclosed that over the summer of 1928, “one of the favorite pastimes” at Lake George was “searching for motors lost overboard.” According to a local correspondent, several outboard motors that were clamped onto vessels fell into the lake and “four in the past week.”
The First Annual Regatta of the Lake George Chamber of Commerce was held at the lake’s south end on August 2, 1928. Thousands of enthusiastic onlookers lined the shore to view a series of highly contested outboard motorboat races. It featured competition under the rules of the National Outboard Racing Association.
During the Class C outboard motor race at a six-mile distance, the watercraft El Cicada “lost its motor in the lake.” The vessel was owned by Hilton Frasier of Diamond Point, but it was piloted by another person during that competitive event.
The outboard motor dropped into the waterway during a quick turn by the boat operator. It was not reported by the press if the outboard had been successfully retrieved from the lake bottom.
The year 1928 predated the use of scuba at Lake George by nearly a quarter-of-a-century. So, grappling irons (a.k.a.-grappling hooks) were employed attempting to snag and recover any outboard engine lost off a motorboat.
Yes, some distraught boaters quickly gained experience learning the “art of grappling” for objects that fell into Lake George’s depths.
Read More About Boating in New York
A version of this article first appeared on the Lake George Mirror, America’s oldest resort paper, covering Lake George and its surrounding environs. You can subscribe to the Mirror HERE.
Illustrations, from above: Tim Lagoe and Mary Pat Meaney measure grappling irons recovered over the past several decades from Lake George during a 2021 anchor/grapnel/grappling iron inventory at Fort William Henry Museum (courtesy Joseph W. Zarzynski); Bolinder’s 1933 two-cylinder Trim outboard engine; and a grappling iron in the collection of the Fort William Henry Museum that was lost in Lake George and was later retrieved by scuba divers (courtesy Egan Johnson).
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