We like oars. They’re simple and efficient. But unless you have a fullback’s shoulders and a lumberjack’s stamina, they limit small boats to local pursuits. Oars must have been a hot topic at the turn of the last century, because the first internal-combustion outboard engines appeared in 1896. Only eight years after Karl Benz’s Motorwagen 3 took its first road-trip, American boaters were putt-putting along rivers and shores with sensible outboard motors, so reliable that a surprising number of them are still running.
By the 1920s, competition in the outboard motor market was stiff. Dozens of manufacturers serviced a lively recreational market. The basic product had basic advantages: you clamped an outboard to a rowboat, canoe, or fishing skiff, and you increased your range by miles. The outboards were simple and powerful, and if they broke down you took the motor—not the entire boat—to a mechanic.
Getting started in boats inevitably involves a fond acquaintance with outboard motors and their uses, their quirks, and most assuredly their dangers.