Where Have All the Steelcraft Gone

Steelcraft! What a great name for a production boat. Let it roll over your tongue a few times. Steelcraft… the images that name evokes. Vault-like security from the ravages of the sea. Your very own little steel ship. Strong, invulnerable, bulletproof. Images of four stack destroyers chasing submarines and cannon shells bouncing off armored topsides. Steelcraft.

Is there anybody out there today who ever heard of a Steelcraft? After World War II, Steelcraft was one of the most, if not the most, prolific boat builders in the world. Steelcrafts were strewn about harbors like so much shredded styrofoam cast upon the waters. Built by Churchward & Company, Inc. of West Haven, Connecticut, they were all over the place -- in harbors up and down the east and west coast of the United States and in the Gulf.

Every now and then a new product comes along that purports to “revolutionize” its respective industry. Steelcraft was one such product. The end of the war in 1946/47 was boom time for the pleasure boat market. After “kicking ass” in Europe and the Far East, servicemen returning home were ready for the good life and Steelcraft was ready for them. At that time, the majority of pleasure boats were built by the time honored “stick and screw” construction process consuming huge amounts of skilled labor and expensive (also becoming hard to find) timber. The fiberglass industry was in its infancy, so, at the time, these steel boats looked like the ideal solution: thrown together with a few sheets of steel -- pressed, creased and bent as necessary, then welded into a one-piece structure. Built just like a car on an assembly line. After all, if steel was good on the Yorktown, it would certainly be great stuff for a 26’ cruiser. 

Exclamation Points!

The advertising was impressive. Consider yourself a serviceman sitting down with his first pleasure boat magazine since returning home. There, usually within the first ten pages of the magazine, would be a full page Steelcraft ad which must have literally jumped out of the page to the boat hungry buying public of that time. The ads led off bluntly with “Here’s why your best buy is Steelcraft”. A piece of dock or anchor line encircled nine starred items next to the headline, boasting Steelcraft features. “Lowest price! Safer… With Lifetime Steel Hull! More living space! Dryer… With Sea-Vee hull! Lowest upkeep costs! Lower insurance rates! No dry rot…no worms! Immune to floating logs, rocks! Steelcraft sales and service coast to coast!” 

It seems exclamation points must have been a big thing back then. Further on down the copy seven more exclamation points are to be found. Under the headline was a photo of a cute little bathtub of a boat clipping along on it’s obviously air brushed wake. Under the photo was the caption in big, strong letters TWENTY-SIX FEET TWO STATEROOM SEDAN … $4963.00. That’s forty-nine hundred sixty-three dollars folks for a complete, ready to cruise vessel that “sleeps four comfortably in two separate cabins” and includes: “Full galley with refrigerator, sink, and cupboard. Dinette seats forward, big table. Full length clothes locker plus extra storage compartments. Private toilet. Chrysler “Ace” power for quiet, smooth speeds to 26 miles per hour” -- all for $4963.00. The claims went on in the ad. “More room to enjoy life than you will find in far bigger boats! More luxury appointments that make the low price hard to believe! More safety because of the alloy steel hull! More “weatherability” with the fast, dry sea-vee hull design!”

 “And remember -- owning a Steelcraft is always a pleasure! Lower upkeep costs -- less maintenance work! No rot -- no worms! Even insurance rates are lower than a wooden boat!” (There are those exclamations again. The ad agency must have gotten a bonus for every exclamation point used in the copy). How could anybody in the small boat market possibly resist this pitch?

Pretty or Pretty Hot?!

She wasn’t really pretty. The boat kind of looked like a floating ’47 Plymouth that inadvertently rolled into the river. It was all rounded and streamlined with a pronounced “S” sheer line and clumsy bow that looked like a soup ladle. The cabin was extremely low and since the control station was inside, visibility was a bit of a problem, but, hey, who cared. The war was over and it was a full blown cruising boat for $4963. Besides, owning her would “always be a pleasure” and she had a “lifetime” steel hull that was “immune to floating logs and rocks” (actually the “floating rocks” are easy, it’s the ones stuck to the bottom that are a bitch).

It all seemed too good to be true… and it was. The thin skinned hulls drummed terribly, making passengers feel like they were inside a giant Chinese gong, Excedrin headache #37. And the boat got hot. Inside temperatures were unbearable and walking on deck on a hot, sunny day would give present day firewalkers something to think about. Worst of all, after a couple of years the strong, invulnerable, bulletproof vessels showed their Achilles heel. Alas, the “lifetime steel hull” that was immune to rot, worms, floating logs and rocks was not immune to rust. The thin steel sheets, although treated for corrosion, could not withstand the ravages of saltwater and, because the steel was so thin, pinholes would appear in a few years. Maybe they were referring to a butterfly’s lifetime. It was not uncommon for one to be able to punch a fist through the rusted hulls. The boats were patched and repatched again until they looked like a quilt, but it was no use. Most ended up a small pile of rust in the back row of boatyards across the country. Another American dream gone awry.

I don’t really know how many were sold, but just after the war every harbor had dozens of them. They were built between 1946 and 1951. They advertised monthly in all the boat magazines in 1947 through 1949, but by 1950 the advertising stopped as the rust progressed. 

Just last year, while in a taxi in New Zealand between the airport and Auckland, we passed a number of harbors. As usual I like to “scope out” the boats since I am always looking for new ideas and designs. As we passed by one harbor, I looked, looked again, and then again. I couldn’t believe it! There at a mooring was… a Steelcraft! It was like finding a living Brontosaurus Rex in the woods behind your house. A true dinosaur of the marine world happily afloat in New Zealand. Taken by surprise, I grappled for my camera to get a quick shot, but the time had passed. I wondered how many times this lone survivor (possibly the only one in the world) had been reskinned. How many thousands of patches did she have? How many times had her deck burned the skin off the soles of somebody’s feet? How many cases of hearing loss were induced by the drumming hull? Sadly, no one will ever know.

Nowadays, when I see and add for things like “lifetime Ginsu knives” or “forever batteries” or “lifetime mufflers”, I think of that butterfly.

July 1986

(Reprinted with permission of Regina Fexas.)

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