History: Chris Smith built his first wooden boat in 1874 at the age of 13. Years later, he built a duck hunting boat. His friends soon asked him to build them one. This was technically the start of the Chris Craft Boat Co. With his brother, he soon began building more boats and in 1881, began producing boats full-time. In 1922, the brothers joined with other partners forming the Smith and Sons Boat Company. The company name was changed to Chris-Craft in 1930. Pictured on this stamp sheet is a Chris-Craft vintage mahogany speedboat from 1954.
Hacker-Craft is the name given to boats built by an American company, The Hacker Boat Co., the oldest builder of wooden motorboats in the world. Founded in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan, by John Ludwig Hacker, the company moved its operations to New York State in the 1970s and continues to produce hand-built boats like the vintage mahogany speedboat pictured here from 1939.
Garfield ‘Gar’ Arthur Wood was an American who built and raced motorboat and held the world water speed record on several occasions. Traveling at over 100 miles per hour on water, he was the first man to do so. As well as being a record breaker and showman, Wood won five straight powerboat Gold Cup races between the years of 1917 and 1921. Shown here is a Gar Wood vintage mahogany speedboat from 1931.
H.S. Hutchinson of New Bedford, Massachusetts, owned a motorboat which, though initially purchased for its private use by Hutchinson, became known as the Chanticleer, serving the U.S. as a Navy patrol vessel from 1917 to 1918. The Chanticleer carried out patrol duties during the rest of World War I. She was returned to Hutchinson on 25 November 1918. A Hutchinson vintage mahogany speedboat from 1915 is pictured here.
Check Out (
Red Book of U.S. Coins
Click for More Images
