April21_2008

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Chris-Craft has a history and heritage that is without equal anywhere else in the Boat Industry for more than 130 years of boat building excellence.

It begins in Algonac, Michigan, a sleepy town on the St. Clair River. It was here that Christopher Columbus Smith built his first boat in 1874, aged 13.

He built a simple lake boat for duck hunting. It demonstrated that he had an extraordinary natural talent for working with wood. From modest beginnings, it wasn't long before Chris and his brother Hank began to build a succession of wooden boats. A new company was established and a legend was born. Today, Chris-Craft is one of the world's most renowned and universally recognized names in boat building. Some dictionaries even list the word Chris-Craft as a synonym for pleasure boat.

By the beginning of the 20th Century, Chris Smith's reputation had begun to spread. At about the same time that Henry Ford started making cars, Chris Smith began to build speed boats. Experimenting with a variety of hull and gasoline engine combinations, Smith realized that powered boats needed an entirely new type of hull design to ensure efficient movement through water.

Photos - Kris B moored at Ward's Marina on Nicomekl River under stormy, clouds skies. This is a vintage Chris Craft pleasure boat that someone is living aboard.

It wasn't long before Smith started to produce a succession of innovative designs. Bitten by the speed bug, his quest for speed led to the achievement of considerable racing success. Winning the American Power Boat Association Gold Cup six years running, Smith's revolutionary designs broke record after record. Indeed, Smith was so successful, that competition rules had to be changed to give other racers a chance.

Between the two world wars, Chris Smith began to produce boats that offered great comfort as well as supreme performance. They were nicknamed Chris-Crafts, both as a mark of respect and affection. The leisure boating market grew strongly so that by 1927, Chris-Craft, as Smith's company officially became known, was the world's largest manufacturer of mahogany boats.

Chris Smith died in 1939, but his son Jay proved to be an equally able builder of boats and the company continued to flourish. Contributing to the war effort, Chris-Craft built more than 10,000 landing craft. On June 6, 1944, Chris-Craft LCPLs spearheaded the D-Day landings. To this day, Chris-Craft remains the only recreational boat manufacturer to have had its boats tested under fire.

After World War II, Chris-Craft recommenced commercial boat production with renewed vigor. By 1959, Chris-Craft had 10 factories and more than 5,000 employees. Leadership of the Company passed to Chris Smith's grandson, Harsen. Interviewed for Time magazine, he attributed Chris-Craft's success to the family rather than any individual within it.

Photos - Frames left and center: The Sextant pleasure boat on blocks at Ward's Marina undergoing refitting and hull cleaning for a new year of boating pleasure.

Frame right: Leonard Haddon's Crab Boat at the boat museum beside the Stewart Farm located at 13723 Crescent Road in Surrey.

This boat was built by Leonard Haddon in 1960. It is identical to the fleet of about 20 boats built by the Elgin Boat Building and Machine Shop. In the tidal waters of the Mud Bay and Nicomekl River, the flat bottom was practical and functional. These plain wooden boats were a common sight in the crab waters of Crescent Beach along with the "putt-putt" of the two cylinder Easthope engine as it chugged down the Nicomekl River to Blackie Spit.

Most fishers made their own crab traps in the off-season and built them with 3/8 inch reinforcement rod covered with web tunnels which were tarred to prevent rusting. These lines were attached to long lines with bouys attached so that they could be thrown overboard in a long row called a "trap line." IN the early years, crabs that were pulled in from the trap line were sold to Vancouver. Later, they were cooked and sold from the Haddon residence which was located close to the Stewart Farm on Crescent Road.

Leonard Haddon fished alone until 1974 when sickness forced him to take on a crew mate, his wife Belle. The husband and wife team worked well together with Belle standing in the forward hole in the deck out of the way of steering and hauling action. From this location, she measured the crabs as they were hauled aboard. In 1985, the Haddons retired and donated their boat to Surrey, making a unique artifact of Surrey's Marine Heritage.

Photos - Views of Leonard Haddon's Crab Boat which was the last boat built by Leaonard Haddon in 1960.

Click here for more photos of Elgin Historic site and the Stewart Farm for this day.