Thompson Boat
Encyclopedia
Thompson Boat was a builder of pleasure boats. The firm started operations at Peshtigo, Wisconsin
in the early months of 1904. Peter and Christian (Christ) Thompson, the elder brothers of a large family made their first wooden boat in the hayloft
of the family barn in early 1904. Local lumber was used, harvested in along the banks of the Peshtigo River
. The first product was a modified lapstrake canoe
, dubbed the "Anti-Leak" canoe by the brothers.
The family came from Denmark
and settled at Racine, Wisconsin
. About 1899 they moved to undeveloped farmland near Peshtigo.
Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. was incorporated in 1912 and by that time, six Thompson brothers were involved: Peter, Chris, Edward, Theodore, Adolh (Tom), and Richard. Their sister Hanna (Johanna) was office manager
. A new factory
complex was built within the city limits of Peshtigo in 1912 and the operation was moved from the cramped quarters at the Thompson farm, a few miles north of town.
Thompson soon became the largest builder of outboard
boats in the world. In 1924 a branch factory was secured in Cortland, NY
. Tom and his sister Hanna Thompson were sent east to run the plant.
In 1953 second generation Thompson family men (Ray, Glenn, Roy, Grant, Bob, and Ted, Jr.) started Cruisers, Inc., a builder of wooden lapstrake boats at Oconto, WI
. Cruisers was formed with the full knowledge, encouragement, and cooperation of the elder Thompson men and Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. In fact, for the first year of operation, Cruisers, Inc. made boats for Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. which were badged with the "Thompson" logo.
By the mid 1950s Thompson Bros. Boat switched from primarily making cedar strip built hulls to plywood
lapstrake boats. The greater horsepower
outboard motors were better suited to the very strong yet lightweight lapstrake hulls.
Effective 1 January 1959 the three boat operations owned by the Thompson family at Peshtigo, Cortland, and Oconto were split amongst family branches. Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo became property of Ray Thompson and family. The former branch at Cortland, NY became Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. with ownership in the hands of brothers Bob and Ted Thompson, Jr. and their cousin Glenn Thompson. Brothers Roy and G.Grant Thompson gained sole ownership of Cruisers at Oconto. All three firms made wooden lapstrake outboard boats.
In 1960 Glenn Thompson decided to return to Wisconsin
and venture out on his own. He established T & T Boats, Inc. and a factory was built in Wausaukee, Wisconsin
. T & T also made wooden lapstrake outboard and inboard
/outboard boats. It lasted until a liquidation
auction signaled the firm's end in May 1965.
Thompson Bros. Boat at Peshtigo was one of the earliest boatbuilders to embrace the new inboard/outboard propulsion unit that was introduced to the boating
public at the New York Boat Show in early 1959. Volvo Penta
of Sweden was the first to make a practical inboard/outboard engine and outdrive. By the summer of 1959 Thompson was installing these in their 17-ft. Sea Lancer and 19-ft. Off-Shore models as options.
The transition from wood
to fiberglass
at all the Thompson operated boat firms was difficult. The family resisted the switch and felt that any high quality wooden boat could out perform, outlast, and outsell fiberglass. However, the 1960s consumer shied away from wood and purchased fiberglass or aluminum pleasure boats. Sales plummeted.
Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. of Cortland, NY was purchased by Chris-Craft Industries
in January 1962 and it became a wholly owned subsidiary. An immediate program of fiberglass boat development began. This initiative created the Corsair fiberglass division of Chris-Craft. The Corsair boats were made by Thompson Boat Company of New York in Cortland.
In late 1964 Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo, WI subcontracted with Crownline, Inc. of Cairo, IL
to have the latter make fiberglass boats for them. This was a low cost means for Thompson to get an abbreviated line of fiberglass boats to supplement their wooden boat line. The arrangement did not last long as Crownline was having major financial difficulties. When Crownline closed down, Peter Thompson - the grandson of the original Peter Thompson - and another team member went to Cairo and retrieved the Thompson molds and tooling. It was too little and too late. The Thompson creditor
s in 1966 forced the sale of the company and Saul Padek got control of all the stock for less than $4,000 cash layout. The Thompson family was out of the boat business at Peshtigo.
Under Padek's ownership Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. declared chapter 11 bankruptcy
in September 1966. Padek began the slow painful switch from wood to fiberglass and by 1969 the last wooden boat rolled out of the plant at Peshtigo.
Cruisers, Inc also resisted the change from wood to RFP. Grant Thompson researched markets, production methods, designs, and costs. Slowly they began making some fiberglass products. The relationships they had made with other boat makers over the years paid off. Cruisers, Inc. was able to get licensing deals with other entrenched fiberglass builders. This helped ease them from wood to glass. By 1967 they had dropped all wooden boats from their product line. The financial loss was significant. The company went from one of the most successful in the industry to just barely hanging on in a matter of a few years. The rebuilding took many years. Today, this is the only Thompson originated boat firm that still operates. It is called Cruisers Yachts and is a division of KCS International.
T & T Boats of Wausaukee never made fiberglass boats. A liquidation auction in May 1965 signalled their demise. Chris-Craft closed the Cortland plant in 1974 which had been a Thompson operation.
Thompson Boat at Peshtigo went bankrupt and closed in 1980. A Thompson dealer in the Detroit area bought the assets from the bankruptcy court and the entire operation was moved from Peshtigo to St. Charles, MI
that year. 76 years of boat building tradition at Peshtigo came to an end.
The revitalized Thompson Boat at St. Charles slowly rebuilt, but bankruptcy was declared in 1993. A new owner came in and got the firm going again. By about 1997 regular production ceased and all boat production stopped by 2000 or 2001. A liquidation auction in 2002 signaled the end of almost 100 years of boat building history.
The Thompson Antique & Classic Boat Rally celebrates the company's history with a boat show every other year.
Peshtigo, Wisconsin
Peshtigo is a city in Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,357 at the 2000 census. The city is located within the Town of Peshtigo. It is part of the Marinette, WI–MI Micropolitan Statistical Area...
in the early months of 1904. Peter and Christian (Christ) Thompson, the elder brothers of a large family made their first wooden boat in the hayloft
Hayloft
A hayloft is a space above a barn, stable or cow-shed, traditionally used for storage of hay or other fodder for the animals below. Haylofts were used mainly before the widespread use of hay bales, which allow simpler handling of bulk hay...
of the family barn in early 1904. Local lumber was used, harvested in along the banks of the Peshtigo River
Peshtigo River
The Peshtigo River is a tributary of Green Bay. The Peshtigo Fire happened in the river's vicinity and some survivors used the river for refuge from the flames. A section of whitewater on the river called the Roaring Rapids is a well-known in the region...
. The first product was a modified lapstrake canoe
Clinker (boat building)
Clinker building is a method of constructing hulls of boats and ships by fixing wooden planks and, in the early nineteenth century, iron plates to each other so that the planks overlap along their edges. The overlapping joint is called a land. In any but a very small boat, the individual planks...
, dubbed the "Anti-Leak" canoe by the brothers.
The family came from Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and settled at Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...
. About 1899 they moved to undeveloped farmland near Peshtigo.
Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. was incorporated in 1912 and by that time, six Thompson brothers were involved: Peter, Chris, Edward, Theodore, Adolh (Tom), and Richard. Their sister Hanna (Johanna) was office manager
Office management
Office manager is a profession related to office supervisory positions.People that hold office management positions conduct special studies and based on the results of these special studies, they develop reports. Apart from developing reports, they also provide input to management on the...
. A new factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
complex was built within the city limits of Peshtigo in 1912 and the operation was moved from the cramped quarters at the Thompson farm, a few miles north of town.
Thompson soon became the largest builder of outboard
Outboard motor
An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom and are the most common motorized method of propelling small watercraft...
boats in the world. In 1924 a branch factory was secured in Cortland, NY
Cortland, New York
Cortland is a city in Cortland County, New York, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 18,740. It is the county seat of Cortland County.The City of Cortland, near the west border of the county, is surrounded by the Town of Cortlandville....
. Tom and his sister Hanna Thompson were sent east to run the plant.
In 1953 second generation Thompson family men (Ray, Glenn, Roy, Grant, Bob, and Ted, Jr.) started Cruisers, Inc., a builder of wooden lapstrake boats at Oconto, WI
Oconto, Wisconsin
Oconto is a city in Oconto County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,708 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is located partially within the town of Oconto.-History:...
. Cruisers was formed with the full knowledge, encouragement, and cooperation of the elder Thompson men and Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. In fact, for the first year of operation, Cruisers, Inc. made boats for Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. which were badged with the "Thompson" logo.
By the mid 1950s Thompson Bros. Boat switched from primarily making cedar strip built hulls to plywood
Plywood
Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...
lapstrake boats. The greater horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
outboard motors were better suited to the very strong yet lightweight lapstrake hulls.
Effective 1 January 1959 the three boat operations owned by the Thompson family at Peshtigo, Cortland, and Oconto were split amongst family branches. Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo became property of Ray Thompson and family. The former branch at Cortland, NY became Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. with ownership in the hands of brothers Bob and Ted Thompson, Jr. and their cousin Glenn Thompson. Brothers Roy and G.Grant Thompson gained sole ownership of Cruisers at Oconto. All three firms made wooden lapstrake outboard boats.
In 1960 Glenn Thompson decided to return to Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
and venture out on his own. He established T & T Boats, Inc. and a factory was built in Wausaukee, Wisconsin
Wausaukee, Wisconsin
Wausaukee is a village in Marinette County, Wisconsin, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was 572. The village is part of the Marinette, WI–MI Micropolitan Statistical Area....
. T & T also made wooden lapstrake outboard and inboard
Inboard motor
An inboard motor is a marine propulsion system for boats. As opposed to an outboard motor where an engine is mounted outside of the hull of the craft, an inboard motor is an engine enclosed within the hull of the boat, usually connected to a propulsion screw by adriveshaft.-History:The first...
/outboard boats. It lasted until a liquidation
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
auction signaled the firm's end in May 1965.
Thompson Bros. Boat at Peshtigo was one of the earliest boatbuilders to embrace the new inboard/outboard propulsion unit that was introduced to the boating
Boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels , focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or water skiing...
public at the New York Boat Show in early 1959. Volvo Penta
Volvo Penta
Volvo Penta was founded in 1907 in conjunction with the production of the first marine engine, B1. The Penta company soon became an established internal combustion engine manufacturer, which in 1927 delivered the engine to Volvo's first passenger car....
of Sweden was the first to make a practical inboard/outboard engine and outdrive. By the summer of 1959 Thompson was installing these in their 17-ft. Sea Lancer and 19-ft. Off-Shore models as options.
The transition from wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
to fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
at all the Thompson operated boat firms was difficult. The family resisted the switch and felt that any high quality wooden boat could out perform, outlast, and outsell fiberglass. However, the 1960s consumer shied away from wood and purchased fiberglass or aluminum pleasure boats. Sales plummeted.
Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. of Cortland, NY was purchased by Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly-held American corporation traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. It later took on the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris-Craft Boats...
in January 1962 and it became a wholly owned subsidiary. An immediate program of fiberglass boat development began. This initiative created the Corsair fiberglass division of Chris-Craft. The Corsair boats were made by Thompson Boat Company of New York in Cortland.
In late 1964 Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo, WI subcontracted with Crownline, Inc. of Cairo, IL
Cairo, Illinois
Cairo is the southernmost city in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the county seat of Alexander County. Cairo is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The rivers converge at Fort Defiance State Park, an American Civil War fort that was commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant...
to have the latter make fiberglass boats for them. This was a low cost means for Thompson to get an abbreviated line of fiberglass boats to supplement their wooden boat line. The arrangement did not last long as Crownline was having major financial difficulties. When Crownline closed down, Peter Thompson - the grandson of the original Peter Thompson - and another team member went to Cairo and retrieved the Thompson molds and tooling. It was too little and too late. The Thompson creditor
Creditor
A creditor is a party that has a claim to the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property or service to the second party under the assumption that the second party will return an equivalent property or...
s in 1966 forced the sale of the company and Saul Padek got control of all the stock for less than $4,000 cash layout. The Thompson family was out of the boat business at Peshtigo.
Under Padek's ownership Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. declared chapter 11 bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in September 1966. Padek began the slow painful switch from wood to fiberglass and by 1969 the last wooden boat rolled out of the plant at Peshtigo.
Cruisers, Inc also resisted the change from wood to RFP. Grant Thompson researched markets, production methods, designs, and costs. Slowly they began making some fiberglass products. The relationships they had made with other boat makers over the years paid off. Cruisers, Inc. was able to get licensing deals with other entrenched fiberglass builders. This helped ease them from wood to glass. By 1967 they had dropped all wooden boats from their product line. The financial loss was significant. The company went from one of the most successful in the industry to just barely hanging on in a matter of a few years. The rebuilding took many years. Today, this is the only Thompson originated boat firm that still operates. It is called Cruisers Yachts and is a division of KCS International.
T & T Boats of Wausaukee never made fiberglass boats. A liquidation auction in May 1965 signalled their demise. Chris-Craft closed the Cortland plant in 1974 which had been a Thompson operation.
Thompson Boat at Peshtigo went bankrupt and closed in 1980. A Thompson dealer in the Detroit area bought the assets from the bankruptcy court and the entire operation was moved from Peshtigo to St. Charles, MI
St. Charles, Michigan
St. Charles is a village in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The village is located in the northwest corner of St. Charles Township with portions of the village located within Brant Township and Swan Creek Township...
that year. 76 years of boat building tradition at Peshtigo came to an end.
The revitalized Thompson Boat at St. Charles slowly rebuilt, but bankruptcy was declared in 1993. A new owner came in and got the firm going again. By about 1997 regular production ceased and all boat production stopped by 2000 or 2001. A liquidation auction in 2002 signaled the end of almost 100 years of boat building history.
The Thompson Antique & Classic Boat Rally celebrates the company's history with a boat show every other year.