Andy McCutcheon100 Years of Wooden Glory - Dispro
September 6th 2007 09:21
1917 Disappearing Propellor Co. Catalogue
Disappearing Propeller Boat Company Ltd.
The event of course was the invention of the Disappearing Propeller Device. It was a unique invention that would permit small rowing skiffs to be powered by small lightweight copper jacketed gas engines.
The propeller and shaft could be raised manually into a small housing in the keel of the craft allowing the boat to be hauled out of the water and onto the beach.
The original invention appears to have been the combined efforts of W.J. Johnston and machinist Edwin Rogers. Both gentlemen were involved in the boat business at Port Sandfield and a patent was applied for and granted, on March 16 1915.
The earlier design of the Disappearing Propeller Boat, dubbed the “Dippy”, had two very serious shortcomings in that the propeller was both unprotected and was unable to be raised into its housing if the engine were running.
None of these early boats are known to have survived to the present day and subsequent improvements to the original design included the addition of a partial skeg and a housing modification, allowing the propeller to continue spinning in the raised position.
These were welcomed changes for boating enthusiasts who were navigating the uncharted waters of the Muskoka lakes which, at the time, were littered by innumerable sunken logs and deadheads left behind by the logging industry.
By 1916 a company appropriately named the "Disappearing Propeller Boat Company Limited" had been formed and in doing so, the company took the physical assets of the W.J. Johnston Boatworks Company to a location below the locks in Port Carling.
Originally, only one model was offered and known as the water “Ford”, in reference to the increasing popularity of the Model “T” Ford at the time.
The original model was 16’ long and powered by a 2hp Waterman engine.
Within a couple of years two additional models would be introduced, a “John Bull” and an “Uncle Sam”. These later models were 18’ long and had alternating light and dark strip deck treatment, with the Uncle Sam being the most expensive of the three models.
In 1919 at the conclusion of WWI, post-war euphoria and leisure spending would account for an increase in production during the 1920’s.
In 1921 over 350 boats would be built in the Port Carling plant alone.
To augment this period of growth, a subsidiary operation commenced in North Tonawanda located on the southern shores of Lake Ontario, today a suburb of Buffalo New York.
By 1922 only six years after its incorporation, the Disappearing Propeller Boat Company Limited was the largest boat building operation in what was then known as the “Dominion of Canada”.
The thriving operation in Port Carling that employed up to 40 men at the time was responsible in part for attracting other businesses and services to the region.
The Bank of Nova Scotia was one of the first companies to locate there and they also provided the impetus for the construction of a power line to Port Carling from a small generating station located near the waterfalls in the town of Bala.
Two years later, the North Tonawanda operation was encumbered by financial difficulty and the Port Carling plant would soon follow suit by closing in the latter part of 1924.
The Disappearing Propeller Boat Company Limited was revived in 1925 under the direction of new ownership and continued building boats in Port Carling until September of 1926. This newly managed operation struggled to break even at best and company assets were moved to the Lindsay Boat Company shortly thereafter.
In the wake of the company’s closure, several employees building the “Dippys” at the Port Carling plant moved their families and followed the trail of financial security to the new operation located in Lindsay Ontario.
Of those that remained behind in Port Carling, William J. Johnston Jr. along with Charlie McCulley and a few of the top tradesmen, following an unsuccessful bid to purchase the assets of the bankrupt company in 1924, went on to establish the Port Carling Boat Works, which in turn became the largest builder of inboard launches in Canada by 1933.
The demise of the Disappearing Propeller Boat Company while unfortunate, served to pave the way, establishing Port Carling as a pre-eminent boat-building centre.
Over the decade they were operational, 2,000 Dippys had been built there and shipped worldwide. Today, many of the original Port Carling built boats may be found as far away as British Columbia in western Canada, Florida and Michigan in the United States and the lakes district of England.
The vast majority of Dippys originally purchased in the Muskoka region remained there and today, a small, dedicated group of owners and volunteers enjoy the pleasures of owning and restoring these unique reminders of their nautical history. Amazingly, they are still running on their original one cylinder copper jacket engines.
Although the peak of production of the Dippys had already passed when the Port Carling operation closed in 1926 manufacture of this uniquely Canadian invention returned to the Muskoka region and were subsequently being built by Greavette Boat Works in Gravenhurst from 1937 to 1956.
John Matheson, who had worked with William Johnston’s Father establishing a water livery business with Henry Ditchburn in the late 1800’s, would go on to be the catalyst for all major boat manufacturing in the Muskoka region. John Matheson upon leaving William Johnston Sr. started his own boat building company but by 1924 sold the company to Ernest Greavette and C.J. Duke, renaming the company to Greavette & Duke. Eventually, Greavette withdrew from the company and C.J. Duke renamed the company to Duke Motor Service and then to Duke Boats in 1931.
Henry Ditchburn, Ernest Greavette and C.J. Duke would all go on to become legendary boat builders alongside the nucleus of ex-employees of the Disappearing Propeller Boat Company, who later incorporated as the Port Carling Boat Works.
Ditchburns, Dukes and Greavettes are now highly collectable and among the most sought after targets of antique boating aficionados.
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