New Member - How to identify an Employee made/owned boat

sayuncle · Post by **sayuncle** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:18 am

I am in the starting stages of repairing and refurbishing a Thompson boat that was built in the Peshtigo plant. It was built by a relative who was an employee and the story is that employees could build their own boat after hours on their own time. I grew up in Peshtigo and have several family members who worked there and have confirmed that this was a common practice in the 1950's and 1960's. Anyone else have a similar situation? Since it was an employee owned boat, the boat was never assigned a serial number. The only identification is a brass tag on the dash. The boat is 14' with a 55" beam, cedar strip with 2 bench seats, and a cedar deck. It has always been in the family and used up til last year. It was built sometime in the late 40's we think. I will post some pictures when I find out how to post them.

LancerBoy · Post by **LancerBoy** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:40 am

Welcome aboard!

Without a serial number or hull ID it will be impossible to get the year. The model might be obtainable via the dimensions and details.

14-55 was a common hull size. 14 feet length around the gunwale and 55 inch beam/width.

To post photos, you must first upload them to somethng like photobucket.com or fliker. Then you can copy and paste them into your posting.

Andreas - who grew up in the Town of Peshtigo

sayuncle · Post by **sayuncle** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 9:02 am

Andreas

I knew the year would be impossible but mostly wanted to get the model. It looks like one of the TVT models. I will remeasure along the gunwale, I measured tip to tip down the keel line. Will post pictures soon.
By the way, I grew up in the town of Grover.

sayuncle · Post by **sayuncle** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:48 pm

Andreas,

Here are some pictures of the old boat.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53928052@N08/show/

The first was last year while out fishing and the rest show the boat this year being stripped of finish and repairs getting started. Note the picture of a decal I found on the spray rail. This looks like a trademark for a company that made the spray rail. Have you seen this before?

Phill Blank · Post by **Phill Blank** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:08 am

sayuncle,

Only one picture showed up on the flickrstie.

Phill

sayuncle · Post by **sayuncle** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:57 am

Thanks Phil, I fixed the link for the photos. They are all there now.

LancerBoy · Post by **LancerBoy** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 7:44 am

The pictures help.

I checked brochures and the 14-55 TVT hull was first introduced for the 1951 model year. They had a 14-54 hull previously.

So, if she is a 14-55, she must be 1951 or newer. The TVT Runabout has a 48 inch long deck with open gunwales. The brochure picture shows three plank seats. The TVT Lake and TVT Sea models have a deck, two bench seats with lazy-back folding backrests and closed gunwales.

Your boat has open gunwales so I am going to jump to a conclusion that she is the 14-55 TVT Runabout model.

I have never seen the spray rail decal. I cannot imagine Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. purchasing pre-made spray rails from some supplier. I would assume that the boat works would make them. But maybe I am wrong in my assumption. It is a very interesting discovery in any event.

You can buy the brochures on CD-ROM at www.wcha.org and www.dragonflycanoe.com

Andreas

sayuncle · Post by **sayuncle** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:22 pm

I remeasured the boat and found it is closer to 54" outside the gunwales; 54 1/8" to be exact. I measured the length of the gunwale; 14' 3" while the tip to transom is 14' exactly. Does it matter which way you measure? Looking forward to the sales CD to check out the different models that were available. Did both plants produce the same models?

LancerBoy · Post by **LancerBoy** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:38 pm

Same basic hulls were built at each plant. Cortland had some different seat details and windshield frame.

Typically, length of a 14 foot boat was the gunwale length so that 14 ft. long lumber could be utilized. That made the centerline length less than 14 ft.

14-54 models were made earlier than 1951. I can find that size as far back as 1942.

Some boats were not made at Cortland such as trhe strip-hull Thomboy. Apparently Cortland NEVER made any of the canvas covered models such as the canoes and Take-Along boats. They would get these boats shipped to them from Peshtigo and then add the Cortland builders tag to the boat.

Andreas

sayuncle · Post by **sayuncle** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 2:33 am

Andreas, I have removed the deck from my boat. On the underside, there are two places marked in pencil, that say 14-54. One is on the back of the dash and the other is on the center deck support. I am wondering if they mass produced the decks or if they were built to fit each specific boat. They also could have made multiple parts ahead and pencil marked them for later use. Anyways, it was nice to find the model but the year will be virtually impossible without any other markings.

LancerBoy · Post by **LancerBoy** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:58 am

Decks and seats and other components were not custom made for each particular boat. They were made with jigs/patterns and set aside. I assume the office said to the factory, make 20 of the 14-54 TVT model so and so. So the plant would make the hulls and the other parts. Decks were assembled on a jig and then dropped into the boat.

Andreas