CHIEF
WARAMAUG
By Ted Grulikowski
By Ted Grulikowski
Looking around inside the storage building, my friend Chip DeBoer and I saw a few well preserved triples, an old launch against the back wall and the front end of a dusty old wood boat sitting in the far rear corner. It was barely visible and surrounded by a white lapstrake and an unrestored Chris Craft utility.
What was amazing to us about this dusty old wood boat was how complete it looked. We climbed on a bench and got inside to inspect it. Everything that probably could have been ordered originally for this boat was still there, including cleats, instruments, gauges, windshield, rubber step pads, pike pole, paddle, walnut steering wheel, controls, mounted fire extinguisher, seat cushions and upholstery. Only the stern pole and gas cap were missing. Looking further in and around the boat we found it even had a complete engine (old and neglected) as well as transmission, prop shaft, strut, propeller and rudder. We had discovered an original unrestored diamond in the rough!
At that time, my wife Barbara and I had just purchased our second Grand Craft and hadn't thought much about buying a very old wood boat. But over the next few years the idea of owning and restoring a treasure like the one we found in storage at Mertaugh's became irresistible.
We feel very fortunate in being able to acquire this boat in October 2000. By then we had figured out that the dusty old relic was in fact, a virtually complete 1927 Chris Craft Cadet, hull number 1028. Based on our research, the Cadet line of Chris Crafts was first introduced in 1927. One authority reported that during this period Chris Craft hull numbers began at 1000, which would make this boat the 28th Cadet produced since introduction. Now that we knew what kind of boat we had, our attention turned to the engine.
Not knowing much about old marine engines, we had no idea what we were looking at when we saw the engine in this Cadet. With the help of a flashlight we could see that there were no extra holes in the engine stringers, a good clue that this was the original engine. After taking numerous pictures of the engine, we began asking wooden boating friends what they thought.
Numerous discussions followed and finally, at The Antique and Classic Boat Society (ACBS) annual meeting in September 2000, we discovered that the engine was a Scripps F6 Junior Gold Cup. Further conversation with Robert Henkel confirmed that the serial number was indeed a Scripps F6 Junior Gold Cup engine, shipped from Scripps Engine Co to Chris Smith and Sons Boat Co. May 5, 1927. Robert's father, Pete, acquired a copy of the original Scripps engine production history that is kept at the Mariners Museum.
Since winter was approaching and we had no immediate plans for the boat, we left it stored at Mertaugh's. In the meantime, we started on the journey of documenting the history of this beautiful, but seriously neglected, Cadet and figuring out how to restore it.
We had two clues that would lead us 74 years back in time. One was the name of the boat, still visible and painted on the sides forward of the windshield "Chief Waramaug." The second was a mention by the prior owner that it was purchased about 20 years ago from an acquaintance who wanted it out of a building on his property in Connecticut.
Working on the Internet and searching for the name Waramaug we discovered a lake in Connecticut named Lake Waramaug. Further searching uncovered an Indian Chief named Waramaug. The excitement was boiling about then and work intensified to find people who knew about our boat. Numerous phone calls, letters, referrals, readings and Internet searches were done. We even placed an ad in a Connecticut newspaper, which reached a man very knowledgeable of the boat. All of this led to a three day research trip to Connecticut in August 2001 and shortly thereafter to a conversation directly with the son of the boat's original owner. The following is the history of our boat Chief Waramaug:
In January 1927, Mr. Stuart Mead of Greenwich Connecticut attended the New York Motor Boat Show held at the Grand Central Palace, New York City. There he met Christopher Columbus Smith and purchased one of the newly introduced Chris Craft Cadets from Chris Smith and Sons Boat Company, Algonac Michigan. A copy of the original hull card shows a May 6, 1927 production date for Mr. Mead's hull #1028. Optional equipment included the Scripps engine and tools, straight front seat with removable center, full cover and special flag.
Mr. Mead named his Cadet "Chief Waramaug" in memory of a highly regarded Connecticut Indian Chief who died in 1735. Waramaug was the Chief of an alliance of small local tribes in western Connecticut (the Pomperaugs, Bantams, Schaghticokes, Weatauges, Weantinokes and Potatucks). These tribes banded together for protection from the Mohawks. Chief Waramaug had a reputation as a wise and able Chief with great abilities and eminent virtues.
The name "Waramaug," means "place of good fishing." In the Chief's region was the second largest natural lake in Connecticut and one of his favorite hunting and fishing grounds. This lake eventually became known as Lake Waramaug.
The Mead family vacationed on Lake Waramaug for many years and owned a home and boathouse on the lake next to where the Boulders Inn stands today.
In the late 1920's and early 30's speedboats became all the rage on Lake Waramaug according to Mary Harwood, author of History of Lake Waramaug. This was also the time when large motorboats such as the Chris Crafts, including Chief Waramaug, arrived on the lake. As Mary described it, rivalries developed and calls of "my Chris Craft is faster than your Chris Craft" led to many speedboat races.
Stuart Mead outfitted his Chris Craft Cadet with the 127 HP Scripps F6 Junior Gold Cup engine to help assure he would win over the Chrysler and Kermath powered boats of the day, particularly those belonging to George Blackiston and a Mr. Mulvahill, his key rivals. Although results were not kept back then no doubt Chief Waramaug won its share of speedboat races over the years. The Chief continued to be used periodically by the Mead family on Lake Waramaug until the start of WWII. From that point forward it was rarely used. It hung in the Mead Boathouse on Lake Waramaug from 1927 until it was sold by the Mead family in 1979 to the Noyes family who summered in Cedarville Michigan. The Noyes' placed Chief Waramaug in storage until it was sold to us in October 2000.
Once we learned the history of Chief Waramaug we began to plan the boat's restoration. Being active members of the Michigan and Water Wonderland ACBS Chapters since 1990, we had already attended numerous wooden boat shows throughout the eastern half of the US and Canada with our Grand Crafts and had developed many friendships with wooden boat owners and restorers. One restorer Russ Arrand and his Cadillac Boat Co. stood out as having all the qualities we wanted in our restorer; honesty, superior reputation and workmanship (as evidenced by his numerous first place restoration awards), good value and a keen personal interest in our project. Russ agreed to do the boat restoration and we couldn't have been happier. The only remaining question was, Who would do the engine?
Scripps Junior Gold Cup engines are very rare today. Come to find out very few people know they even exist and even fewer own restored models.
In doing research on the Cadet and Scripps engine at Dick Sligh's Grand Craft Company (Dick has an incredible collection of old wooden boat magazines), we found the following article in the April 10, 1927 edition of Motor Boat: Two orders for Chris-Craft Cadets have recently been placed by T. E. Mitten and his son, Dr. A. A. Mitten of Philadelphia. Both boats will be driven by six cylinder Junior Gold Cup Scripps motors, which will give them close to 35 m.p.h. They have identical equipment throughout and will be used on Long Lake. We don't know if the Mitten's still own their Scripps Junior Gold Cup equipped Cadets, but we did discover in reading the ACBS Directory that 6 Cadets and at least two Hackers are registered as having Junior Gold Cup engines. After a few letters and phone calls we made contact with Les Rue, owner of the two Hackers. Les was most gracious and gave us his experience with the Scripps Junior Gold Cup engines. He suggested that George Shinn was best equipped to handle our engine restoration as he had already restored a number of Scripps Junior Gold Cup engines and that these engines were still running very well. A few conversations with George and some pictures of Scripps Junior Gold Cup engines he had restored convinced us that he was most qualified and we agreed that he would handle our engine restoration.
The restoration of Chief Waramaug began in June 2001 with hopes of having it completed by May 2002. To be continued
CHRIS CRAFT CADET
Chris Smith and Sons Boat Company introduced the "Cadet" at the New York Motor Boat Show January 21-29, 1927.
According to Dr. Thomas E. Jarrett, author of numerous boating articles, the origin of the word "Cadet" is unknown but may well have been the brainchild of A. W. "Bill" MacKerer, a well-known naval architect and design chief at Chris Craft. It was the first time that a production boat had been given a special name ("Cadet") by the builders in Algonac Michigan where all the Cadets were built during the period 1927 - 1929.
The Cadet was advertised as a duplicate of the famous 26-foot Chris Craft, but smaller for greater usefulness. Specifications included:
Length: 22 feet
Beam: 6 feet
Draft: 22 inches
Freeboard: 29 inches forward, 18 inches aft
Construction: All Mahogany
Bottom: 5/8 inch double planked
Sides: 1/2 inch
Speed: 25 - 35 mph
Motor: Kermath (70 hp)
Chrysler (82 -106 hp)
Scripps (100 - 127 hp)
Fuel Capacity: 33 gallons
Net Weight: 2805 lbs
Price: $2395 f.o.b. Algonac
Chris Craft planned to produce 500 Cadets during the 1927-1929 period. In 2001 only 27 of the 1927 model Cadet were registered in the national Antique and Classic Boat Society Directory.
SCRIPPS F-6 JUNIOR GOLD CUP ENGINE
The following information is taken from the Scripps Motor Company, Detroit Michigan, Engine Catalog - 1927.
Scripps Motor Company introduced the Model F-6 engine in 1924 after the sensational success of the Model F-4 due to a demand for a larger size motor. "Lady Helen" was the first boat to carry a Model F-6 and made its first appearance by winning the Junior Gold Cup race at the Detroit Regatta on August 29, 1924. It was built by the Hacker Boat Company for Mr. Aaron DeRoy of Detroit. This international event was restricted to bonafide runabouts powered with motors not to exceed 335 cubic inches. The Scripps F-6 has a displacement of 331 cubic inches with power rated at 106 H.P. @ 2600 R.P.M.
Although the power output of the regular Model F-6 had not been approached for its displacement by any other manufacturer in the marine field, Scripps engineers, through a special development, materially increased the power of this wonderful engine for high-speed work and called the new application the Scripps F-6 Junior Gold Cup engine. In all major parts, the Junior Gold Cup engine is identical with the standard F-6, the modifications coming from refinements principally in the design of the cylinder heads, the manifolding, and the addition of dual carburetors. The Scripps F-6 Junior Gold Cup engine has a displacement of 331 cubic inches with power rated at 127 H.P. @ 2600 R.P.M.
The Scripps F-6 Junior Gold Cup engine has the same piston displacement as the regular machine, which makes it eligible for the Junior Gold Cup Class, the limit of which is 335 cubic inches. For racing it is likewise eligible for the 340 cubic inch class in the Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association. The championships in this class as well as the Junior Gold Cup Class were won by the standard F-6.
Those who have followed racing and have had particular experience with the best developments in motors of every type were simply amazed at the perfect performance of this engine in the regattas held in Miami, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, and other Florida pointes. The Biscayne Babies, built by Purdy, and the Tampa Baybies, produced by Hacker, both carry this model as stock equipment.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Motor - 6 cylinder, 4-cycle, bore 3, stroke 5"
Weight 750 lbs.
Power Developed - 127 H.P.@2600 R.P.M.
Price - $1350 f.o.b. Detroit
Few Scripps F6 Junior Gold Cup engines exist and only 6 were registered in the 2001 national Antique and Classic Boat Society Directory.