The Electric Launch Company, later renamed Elco Motor Yachts ("Elco"), is an American boat building and electric motor company that has operated from 1893 to 1949 and from 1987 to the present.

History

Elco first made its mark at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

of 1893 in Chicago. Fifty-five launches, each 36 feet long and powered by battery-drive
electric motors
carried over a million passengers. In 1899

Isaac Rice Isaac Leopold Rice (February 22, 1850 – November 2, 1915) was a German-born Jewish American businessman, investor, musicologist, author, and chess patron.

, president of the

Electric Storage Battery Company Exide was originally a brand name for batteries produced by The Electric Storage Battery Company and later became Exide Corporation doing business as Exide Technologies, an American multinational lead-acid batteries manufacturing company. It ...

and owner of Electric Boat Company, now

Electro-Dynamic Company The Electro-Dynamic Company manufactured electric motors and generators 1880–2000, principally as a subsidiary of the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics and its predecessors. History The company was founded by electrical inventor Will ...

, (both suppliers to Elco), acquired Elco as a subsidiary of his new

Electric Boat Company Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

. Elco built a new boatyard in

Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is situated on a peninsula located between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east. As ...

soon afterward. Previously, Elco boats had been built in subcontracted facilities. By 1900, electric-powered pleasure boats outnumbered the combined number of boats powered by steam and explosive engines (as gasoline-powered motors were called). By 1910, the advantages of the range and power of gasoline came to dominate the market and Elco converted to

motor boat A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...

s. The company built the first

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engi ...

powered yacht in America, ''Idealia'', built during 1911 and launched in 1912. ''Idealia'' was owned by the company into 1916 and used for demonstrating the application of

two stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

diesel engines in yachts. On 22 October 1913 under ELCO corporate manager Henry R. Sutphen ''Idealia'' performed a trial on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

witnessed by naval engineers and architects on a run of about sixty miles from the Columbia Yacht Club at 86th Street to

Croton Point Croton Point Park is a Westchester County park in the village of Croton-on-Hudson. The park has several public attractions including a miniature aircraft airport, boat launch, tent and RV camping, cabin rental, cross-country skiing, fishing, gro ...

and back. The original ''Idealia'' installation was a reversible, air started, two cycle engine with six working cylinders and one two stage air compression cylinder that was rated at 150 horsepower at 550 revolutions per minute. The original engine was replaced by a NELSECO 120 horsepower

four cycle engine A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

by February 1915. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the company built five hundred and eighty 80-foot

submarine chaser A submarine chaser or subchaser is a small naval vessel that is specifically intended for anti-submarine warfare. Many of the American submarine chasers used in World War I found their way to Allied nations by way of Lend-Lease in World War I ...

s (aka

Motor Launch A Motor Launch (ML) is a small military vessel in Royal Navy service. It was designed for harbour defence and submarine chasing or for armed high-speed air-sea rescue. Some vessels for water police service are also known as motor launches. ...

es) for the

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of i ...

, and 448 110-foot submarine chasers and 284 boats of other types for the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Between the wars, it introduced the 26-foot Cruisette, a

cabin cruiser A cabin cruiser is a type of power boat that provides accommodation for its crew and passengers inside the structure of the craft. A cabin cruiser usually ranges in size from in length, with larger pleasure craft usually considered yachts. Man ...

which became successful. This was followed in the 1930s with 30-foot to 57-foot Veedettes and Flattops. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Elco formed the Elco Naval Division in

. Nearly 400 Elco PT boats were produced for the U.S. Navy. After experimentation, the firs
PT boat
built in any quantity was the 73-foot type. Later 77-foot and 80-foot types were built. More 80-foot Elco boats were built than any other type of US motor

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

. Perhaps the most notable 80-foot PT boat was PT-109, commanded by future president John F. Kennedy. Even though 85' Elco

crash rescue boat Crash Rescue Boat is a name used in the United States to describe military high-speed offshore rescue boats, similar in size and performance to motor torpedo boats, used to rescue pilots and aircrews of crashed aircraft. During World War II t ...

s were substituted in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', the "Elco" script logo can be seen on the cockpit throttle housing in several scenes in the picture. At the end of the war, the company merged with its sister company,

Electric Boat An electric boat is a powered watercraft driven by electric motors, which are powered by either on-board battery packs, solar panels or generators. While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power ...

, under John Jay Hopkins. In 1949, Electric Boat decided to focus on government contracts for submarines, and Elco was closed until 1987.

Today

Today Elco produces hand-crafted replicas of some of its classic launches in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

, New York. The company also still makes electric motors, mainly used to repower sailboats and heavy displacement powerboats as a replacement for diesel engines. Their EP Motors range in power from 1–35 kW, which is the diesel equivalent of 2–70 hp. Elco has also worked on recent projects with

Hunter Marine Hunter Marine is an American boat builder, now known as Marlow-Hunter, LLC, owned by David E. Marlow. The company also produces the Mainship powerboat brand. Marlow also owns and manufactures the Marlow Yachts brand consisting of long rang ...

to outfit some of their yachts with Elco motors and a combination of solar panels and wind turbines.Hunter 27e
/ref>

References

Records of the Electric Launch Company

Elco History Page
* Gardiner, Robert, ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921'' Conway Maritime Press, 1985. .

External links

Elco

Boats of the Motor Launch Patrol

{{Authority control Bayonne, New Jersey Companies based in Hudson County, New Jersey Shipyards of New Jersey

History

Today

See also

References

External links