Home - History - The book - Photo Gallery - Restorations - Classifieds - Links
In the summer of 1914, an event took place at Port Sandfield that would have profound effects on the development of nearby Port Carling, and would contribute significantly to the establishment of that village as one of the foremost boat building centres in North America.
The event, of course, was the invention of the Disappearing Propeller Device, a unique contraption which would permit small rowing skiffs to be powered by small lightweight gas engines. The propeller and shaft could be raised manually into a small box fitted into the keel of the craft so that the boat could be hauled out of the water onto a wharf or beach.
The original invention appears to have been a co-operative effort between boatbuilder W.J. Johnston, Jr. and machinist Edwin Rogers, both of whom were in the boat business at Port Sandfield at the time. A patent was applied for, which was granted on March 16, 1915.
The earliest D.P. boats, however, had two very serious shortcomings. The propeller was unprotected, nor could it be raised into its housing if the engine were running. None of these craft are known to have survived to the present day. Subsequent improvements to the original device provided automatic propeller protection from underwater obstructions in the form of a protecting skeg and modification of the housing to allow the propeller to revolve in the raised position. These were welcome improvements indeed in the uncharted waters of Muskoka, which were particularly hazardous in those days due to the numerous sunken logs and deadheads left behind by the lumbermen.
| By 1916, a company, appropriately named the "Disappearing Propeller Boat Company Limited" had been formed, which took of the assets of the W.J. Johnston Sr. Boatworks immediately below the locks in Port Carling, across from the present Duke Marine Services. Originally, only one model was offered, know as the Water-Ford, a name suggested by the phenomenal popularity of the Model T Ford at the time. This was a 16-footer with a 2 H.P. Waterman engine. |  |
 |
Within a couple of years two other models were introduced, the John Bull (really just a very fat Water-Ford) and the Uncle Sam, a sleek 18-footer with a unique alternate light and dark strip deck treatment. This latter model soon became the archetypal Dippy in spite of being the most expensive of the three models. |
With the return of the servicemen from the battlefields in 1919, the stage was set for the phenomenal growth of the enterprise during the 1920's. In 1921, the largest year of production, over 350 boats were built in the Port Carling plant alone, while a subsidiary operation in North Tonawanda, New York was also getting into full swing. By 1922 the Disappearing Propeller Boat Co. Ltd. was the largest motorboat-building operation in the Dominion of Canada and for the next couple of years, manufacturing continued unabated. The thriving company with its payroll of up to 40 men, attracted other ancillary businesses and services, such as the Bank of Nova Scotia to the town, and it even provided the impetus for the erection, in 1919, of a hydro power line to Port Carling from the small generating station at Bala Falls.
The North Tonawanda operation got into financial difficulties in 1923, and the Port Carling plant was shut down in late 1924. The boom was over. Although the D.P. Boat Co. Ltd. was back in business again in 1925, under new ownership, and continued to build boats in Port Carling until September 1926, the operation was a break-even one at best and the equipment was moved to Sam Botting's Lindsay Boat Co. shortly afterwards.
Although some of the younger workers from the Port Carling plant pulled up stakes and followed the operation to Lindsay, most remained behind in Port Carling. W.J. Johnston Jr., along with Charlie McCulley, and a few of the top D.P. workmen, had made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the assets of the defunct D.P. Boat Co. after its liquidation in 1924. Unabashed, they went out on their own and established the Port Carling Boat Works, which in turn became the largest builder of inboard launches in Canada by 1933.
| Although D.P. production in Port Carling had lasted only one decade, it had helped to establish Port Carling as a prominent boatbuilding centre. Over 2,000 Dispro boats had been built there, and shipped to the 4 corners of the globe. Many of these original Port Carling boats to the present days in places as far away as British Columbia, Florida, Michigan and the Lakes District in England. Of course, the lion's share were originally purchased in Muskoka, and to this day a small but dedicated group of owners enjoy the pleasures of these unique little craft. Most, amazingly, are still running on their original one cylinder copper jacket engines. |  |
Personnel from the Port Carling D.P. factory took their skills to other boatbuilding concerns such as Ditchburn's Greavette's and Duke's as well as to the aforementioned Port Carling Boat Works and Lindsay Boat Company.
 |
Although the heyday of the Dispro boat had already passed when the operation left Port Carling in 1926, manufacture of this uniquely Canadian craft continued on a small scale in Lindsay from 1927 to 1936 and subsequently at Greavette's in Gravenhurst from 1937 to 1956. |  |
| Today, derelict Dispros in the most advanced stages of decay are being lovingly restored to better than brand new condition by enthusiasts who have come to appreciate the boat's endearing qualities. And so it looks as though the Muskoka Lakes may continue to resound with that soft put-put-put for yet another 70 years. |  |
copyright
Paul Dodington 2002
The material on the links below consists primarily of scanned images of original material and may be somewhat slow to download depending on your connection speed
Home - History - The book - Photo Gallery - Restorations - Classifieds - Links
Disappearing Propeller Boat Company Limited
Box 152, Port Carling, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada P0B 1J0
Phone: (705) 765-5037