Thompson Boat in a Nutshell
From ClassicBoatWiki
The History of Thompson Boat
by Andreas Jodahl Rhude 01 March 2008
The story of THOMPSON BOAT is complicated and not simple to discuss in a few paragraphs. There were numerous firms that sprang from Thomspon Boat. Thompson Boat of Peshtigo, Wisconsin; Thompson Boat of Cortland, New York; Thompson Royal-Craft; Cruisers, Inc.; T & T Boats; Thompson Skis (water skis), Unit Structures, Inc.; and Grady-White Boats all trace their origins to Thompson.
The beginnings date back to about 1889 when Peter Thomspon started working in the boat operation of Racine Hardware Manufacturing Company (Racine Boat). He was a laborer. When the boat operation was completely destroyed in 1903, Peter moved to Algonac, Michigan where he worked in a boat livery. The owner was Christopher Columbus Smith, later to become father of "Chris-Craft" boats. It is unknown how long Thompson worked at Algonac, but it was most likely less than one year.
Peter returned in Wisconsin and his family home near Peshtigo. In the early months of 1904 he and his younger brother Christ built a canoe using locally harvested lumber. The hay mow of the barn was used as the production space. They decided to go into boat and canoe building with vigor - and a legacy was born! By autumn, their father kicked them out of the barn so hay could be put up. A "boat factory" was built on the farm. Soon several other of their brothers joined the endeavor. A number of local farm boys were also engaged by Peter and Christ.
Within one year after their genesis, the Thompson brothers made a fateful decision. They bought a small classified ad in "Hunter Trader Trapper" magazine to promote their boats and canoes. This brought a nationwide audience to their product. Whereas most small boat builders were regional in nature, Thompson Boat soon had national distribution of their product through a mail order business. This put the name "Thompson Boat" on a national footing.
In 1912 the growing company incorporated as "Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co., Inc." and included six Thompson brothers: Peter, Christ, Edward, Theodore, Adolph (Tom), and Richard. They built a new 22,000 square foot factory in the city of Peshtigo and moved from the farm. Operations at the new factory started in February 1913 and there were 25 men on the payroll in August that year.
Products included small row boats, canoes, duck boats, outboard power boats, and skulls. A number of Great Lakes commercial fishing boats were also built during this time period. A fifty-foot offshore fishing boat was built in 1915 for a Galveston, Texas fisherman. Automobile maker John Studebaker ordered a 26-foot trunk cabin gasoline launch for his Wisconsin retreat in the summer of 1917. Over time, inboard runabout and utility boats were added to the product mix. Lapstrake, carvel, and strip built hulls were made.
There were numerous expansion made at the Peshtigo factory. An increased demand for their product had them open a branch factory at Cortland, New York in late 1924. Tom Thompson was sent east to manage the plant. Hanna Thompson, an elder sister, was office manager at Peshtigo before being transferred to Cortland in 1925. She spent her entire career devoted to the boat works, receiving little recognition for her contributions.
Second generation Thompson family members cut their teeth in the boat works. Roy Thompson, eldest son of Christ, began working in the shop at age fourteen. He fondly reminisces about starting in the propulsion end of things - painting and varnishing paddles and oars!
A second generation boat building operation, Cruisers, Inc., was started in 1953 at nearby Oconto, Wisconsin. It was born with the full blessing and cooperation of Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. and the elder Thompson men. In fact, for about the first year of operation, Cruisers, Inc. made boats for Thompson Boat which were badged and sold as "Thompson" boats. By the 1955 model year, Cruisers, Inc. had created their own models and set up their own dealership network. However, a close synergy remained between the two corporations.
By the mid 1950s strip-built hulls were dropped for the line and plywood lapstrake models became the focus. It is estimated that up to 12,000 boats were built annually by the three plants.
A major reorganization of the corporations and three boat shops became effective 01 January 1959. The four surviving founders: Christ, Ed, Ted, and Tom retired from active participation. A new corporation was set up and the Cortland operation was spun-off and its own independent entity called Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. Bob, Ted, Jr. and their cousin Glenn Thompson became owners. Ray L. Thompson and his children Peter and Carol Rae become owners of Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo. Cruisers, Inc. became the sole property of brothers Roy H. and G. Grant Thompson. The three firms now competed against one another.
1959 was the peak year of outboard boats being produced in the United States with 329,000 units being built. Thompson at Peshtigo, Thompson of NY, and Cruisers, Inc. took full advantage of this boom. However, the hand writing of non-wood boats causing the end of the wooden boat era was on the cusp. Overall boat production dropped to 239,000 by 1962. Thompson family enterprises bucked the trend to fiberglass and aluminum boats and stuck with wood. They felt any good quality wooden boat could out perform , outlast and outsell any fiberglass counterpart. Even if this was correct, consumers abandoned wooden boats in favor of fiberglass and aluminum ones. Wooden boat builders lost a huge market share.
Cruisers, Inc. went from selling 3,000 boats in 1959 and 1960 to only 800 in 1965. Thompson at Peshtigo went through a similar drop in sales. As the middle of the decade past by, they realized a change was necessary and a switch to fiberglass began. However it was too little and too late. Cruisers, Inc. struggled but managed to hang on and dropped wooden boats by 1967. They used their connections in the boating industry to gain expertise in fiberglass. They also managed to make a deal with Woody Woodson of Thunderbird Boats to copy his hull on a royalty basis.
Thompson of New York sold out to Chris-Craft in January 1962. Immediate plans for creation of a fiberglass line were promulgated and the infusion of capital from Chris-Craft made this possible. The all-fiberglass Corsair line hit the market in 1963. See 1963 to 1977 Corsair Division. The wooden lapstrake Thompson line was dropped in July 1965.
T & T Boats, Inc. was the least successful in the transition., In fact, they died in 1965 after less than five years of operation.
At Peshtigo, the transition began half heartedly in 1964. Pete Thompson convinced his father Ray to get an abbreviated line of glass boats. They had boats made for them by Crownline in Cairo, Illinois. This was short lived as Crownline's own troubles caused them to close. Thompson Boat at Peshtigo retrieved the molds and tooling they owned but this experience soured them on glass. Financial troubles caused the rug to be pulled out from under them in August 1966. The Thompson family lost control of the company and Saul Padek took over as principal owner and president.
The foregoing is a synopsis of the book being written on the history of Thompson Boat et.al. by Andreas Jordahl Rhude, email: thompsonboat@msn.com
