Electric Launch Company

The Electric Launch Company (Elco) was a United States boat building company that operated from 1892 until 1949. It was run by Henry R. Sutphen from 1895 to its demise.

Elco first made its mark at the Colombian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. 55 launches, each 36 feet long and powered by battery-powered electric motors, carried over a million passengers.

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 boats. [ [http://www.elcoelectriclaunch.com/history.htm Elco History - Over 100 Years of Silent, Clean, Electric Marine Propulsion] ]

During WW I the company built five hundred and fifty 80-foot submarine chasers for the British Admiralty.

Between the wars it introduced the famous 26-foot Cruisette, a cabin cruiser which became the Model “T” of pleasure boating. This success was followed in the 1930s with 30-foot to 57-foot Veedettes and Flattops, motor boats that set standards in a golden era of boating.

During WWII Elco formed the Elco Naval Division. Nearly 400 Elco PT boats came from this plant. After experimentation the first 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 (including John F. Kennedy's PT-109) than any other type of US motor torpedo boat. [ [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq60-5.htm Naval Historical Center] ]

At the end of the war the company merged with its sister company Electric Boat to form the nucleus of a new corporation General Dynamics. In 1949, General Dynamics decided to focus on government contracts for submarines at Electric Boat and military and commercial aviation sales at Convair. Selling boats to the general public did not fit and the company was closed. [ [http://www.elcoelectriclaunch.com/history.htm Elco History - Over 100 Years of Silent, Clean, Electric Marine Propulsion] ]

ee also

* Fairmile Marine
* Vospers
* British Power Boat Company

References

* [http://www.mysticseaport.org/Library/manuscripts/coll/coll213/coll213.html Records of the Electric Launch Company]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.motorlaunchpatrol.net/construction/design_and_construction.php Boats of the Motor Launch Patrol]
* [http://www.acbs.org/rudder/oldrudder/Rudder/ElcoGallery/index.htm ELCO Photo Gallery]