| The Engine Company Remembered For Its Boats by Jay Higgins Thanks to Jay for allowing us to reprint his wonderful
article, which first appeared in the Winter 1989 edition of Nautical
Quarterly. Jay also provided many of the pictures shown here. Thanks also to
Dick Sherwood for his
Jeff Killeen’s award winning 1914 Special Launch, Moonlight Serenade. Fay & Bowen launches and runabouts are the slim, glistening, brass-bejeweled ladies that still slide over the waters of the Adirondacks with the poise of socialites arriving at the opera. Since 1901, Fay & Bowen boats have been as linked to the Adirondacks and their mountain lakes as the region’s ubiquitous guideboats.
Few of the Great Camps were without one or two; Lake George alone
had three Fay & Bowen dealerships; and the list of Fay & Bowen owners in the
1920s reads like a Who’s Who of prominent Americans from Victor Herbert to
the Uihlein family, brewers of Schlitz beer. The enterprise that Mr. Fay and
Mr. Bowen started in 1895 as manufacturers of bicycle parts in Auburn, N.Y.,
and moved to Geneva, N.Y., in 1904 after switching to marine engines and
boats, seems to have been a straightforward and uncomplicated company. And
it seems to have consistently done a couple of things very well. It built
engines and gentleman’s launches and it sold them successfully through a
large dealer network. It didn’t have the flash or energy of powerful
personalities that often stood behind the other powerboat builders of its
era. It lacked a lucky Chris Smith, an aggressive Gar Wood, an artistic John
Hacker, a wealthy Horace Dodge. Compared to its competitors, Fay & Bowen was
staid, small-town, uncompromising in its devotion to a first-quality product
and a style of boat and boating that finally couldn’t compete with the
speedboats of the 1920s. Sixty and more years later, time seems to have caught up
with these elegant little boats that were too slow, too expensive and too
old-fashioned in their final decade of evolution. “I bought my Fay & Bowen
in 1977 for $1000,” boasted one proud owner. “You were robbed,” countered
another. “Mine came with the camp.” Both speakers knew the value of their
finds. In the 1960s, 1970s, and even into the 1980s, such collectors were
able to buy overlooked Fay & Bowen antique boats at far less than their
original prices. Times have changed. Consider yourself lucky if you can find a Fay & Bowen launch or long-decked, wicker-chaired runabout for $15,000. Restored, these floating pieces of furniture now fetch as much as $60,000.
restored by the late Bill Smith, ACBS founder.
Nevertheless, on July 4, 1900, they sold their business to
the Standard Spoke and Nipple Co. of Torrington, Connecticut. As Eleanore
Clise says, “This was neither a hasty decision nor a forced one. During the
time they had been turning out bicycle parts, Mr. Bowen had become
interested in the internal-combustion engine. After studying the small
engines then on the market, he felt
When the sale of their spoke works was finalized, the reward reaped by the two gentlemen was immediately re-invested in a new company called the Fay & Bowen Engine Company, and Bowen, a Cornell graduate engineer and a man who had already designed and built a 2-cycle engine, got busy with the new technology of gasoline (or “explosive”) engines, a thing that exploded all over the world in 1895 when the original German patents ran out. The change from manufacturing bicycle accessories to the production of engines (both stationary and marine conversions) was soon accomplished. The partners raised $25,000 capital and set up in the same building at Auburn. The very first Fay & Bowen marine engine was tested extensively in a 25’ boat on Owasco Lake during the autumn of 1900. About a year later they added a line of small motorboats. According to Eleanore Clise, “Like their previous business, this one was successful from the outset – not only because of Ernest Bowen’s mechanical genius and Walter Fay’s business ability, but also because they were so meticulous about their products, especially when it came to the testing. Reliability was of utmost importance!”
Jeff Killeen’s award winning 1914 Special Launch, Moonlight Serenade “Reliability” is the one word that appears
prominently on the company’s spoked-wheel logo, although how reliable Fay &
Bowen engines were by modern standards is open to question. In that
1900-1920 era of cranky little marine engines they apparently did pretty
well. Bowen and Fay were honest and earnest, and we may be able to believe
most of what we read in the enthusiastic copy that appeared in the 1911
catalog:
As Fay & Bowen claimed, “Every new design, either of power
or hull, is subjected to every possible test under actual service conditions
before it is allowed to go to the public under the warranty of the Fay &
Bowen Engine Company.” The test driver for the boats was Joseph Hart, who
was stone deaf. He would ride in the boat with his head on the gunwale, and
if there were any telltale quiver of hull or machinery he could detect it
immediately. Walter Fay’s grandson recalls being taken out often on Seneca
Lake for quite a memorable experience. The boy would perch on the aft seat,
leaving tester Hart at liberty to do his work. Hart would head the boat
directly at Lighthouse Point. He would then disappear into the engine
compartment where he would place one end of a long metal rod against the
engine and the other on his jaw, testing for further untoward vibrations.
Meanwhile, the proprietor’s grandson would note that the shore was dead
abead and closing fast. At seemingly the very last second before colliding
with Lighthouse Point, Hart’s long arm would emerge from the engine
compartment and wrench the wheel.
Elizabeth Ellen on the water at left, and the Canadian berthed Ghost (Below). During its first three years as an engine builder, the Fay
& Bowen Company operated from a small brick factory on what was called “the
big dam” in Auburn. Engines were machined and built on the first floor,
painted and packed on the second floor, then swung on tackles into wagons or
trucks in the yard below. Boats were built in a small shop on the outlet of
Owasco Lake about two miles from the engine factory. Every marine engine was
carted to the boatbuilding plant for installation. After its final testing
on the lake, it was hauled back about 3-1/2 miles to the Auburn freight
station. In 1904 the Fay & Bowen Company moved to Geneva on Seneca
Lake. It gained a waterfront location, good transportation, and the large
and small advantages of what was by Auburn standards a cultural and
industrial metropolis. In Geneva in 1904 there were nearly 40 enterprises of
some size cranking out useful items from stoves to eyeglasses to razor
strops. Samuel K. Nester, the owner of Geneva’s malt business in
beer-drinking Upstate New York, was so powerful that when he appeared on the
floor of the Chicago Board of Trade the anticipation of his order would
bring trading to a halt. Caruso sang in the little city’s Smith Opera House,
taking time off from the Metropolitan Opera. Broadway productions played
there, as did Jolin Philip Souza. And the place was quite a remarkable
railroad hub. No fewer than 48 passenger trains passed through daily at this
convergence of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the Lehigh
Valley Railroad, and the Fall Brook Railroad. There was also a connection
with the Erie Canal.
Fay & Bowen built more engines than boats. According to
engine authority Myron White of Penn Yan, N.Y, Fay & Bowen sold most of its
early engines for use as stationary power plants. Often they ran milking
machines. Today’s collectors seeking original Fay & Bowen engines might look
for them on the old, family-owned dairy farms of New York state and
Wisconsin. And the little engines had multiple applications. One powered a
sausage-grinding machine at Baumgartner’s Meat Market in Geneva. In the wide-open, engine-crazy years before 1920, the
manufacturing and sale of marine engines was a highly competitive market.
Well over a hundred marine-engine manufacturers were aggressively
advertising their engines in the early 1900s. As someone pointed out, “Every
town on the Great Lakes seems to have a marine-engine builder.” Fay & Bowen
was cocky to the point of arrogance about the engines it built with the
imperative of Reliability. Its fancy 1911 catalog snidely states: Despite the relative success that Fay & Bowen was having with its line of boats and its engines for every purpose by 1911, it’s important to note a couple of pre-World War I trends. First, at the time of his death in 1913, Ernest Bowen had his sights set on the motor-vehicle market, for which he was developing a four-cycle prototype engine. Secondly, in 1914, the prestigious and successful Gray Marine Motor Company of Detroit started converting the equally prestigious Continental engines to marine use. There are those who claim that Fay & Bowen would have been wise to abandon its own relatively crude marine-engine conversions then and there, perhaps building boats and installing other peoples’ engines, perhaps staying with engines and entering the automotive lists. Typically, Fay & Bowen didn’t change. Beginning in 1910, they carried on their marine-engine and stationary-engine business with a new line of four-cycle machines the L-2 1 (5-9 hp), L-41 (10-18 hp), L-43 (20-35 hp), L-44 (30-45 hp), L-63 (30-50 hp), L-64 (45-65 hp). Horsepower ratings varied according to duty – farm machinery, pleasure boat, etc. – and the numeral after the “L” indicated number of cylinders from two to six. These Fay & Bowen “fours” were more or less “state-of-the-art” before World War I, when military imperatives forced the development of superb engines for aircraft that later appeared in boats. Stan Grayson, in Old Marine Engines, a thorough survey of the subject published by International Marine, writes: “Like the two-cycle, the ‘four’ was characterized by the finest materials, oversize bearings, and superb workmanship. These were T-head engines in which the inlet and exhaust valves were arranged on opposite sides of the head, allowing the valves to be of particularly generous dimensions. No engineer of that epoch could have remained uninfluenced by the successful use of T-headers in Wilhelm Maybach’s first Mercedes, in 1901, or – closer to home – the wonderful T-head engine designed in Trenton, New Jersey, by Finley Robertson Porter for the Mercer automobile.”
While collectors may wish to keep an original
Fay & Bowen engine aboard their boats, the fact of the matter is that the
company’s marine conversions were poorly engineered in some significant
particulars despite their vaunted workmanship and up-to-the-minute prewar
design. The oil seals are described by collector, replica-boatbuilder and
engine aficionado Mark Mason as “primitive and ineffectual.” Thus, the Fay &
Bowen engines spurted almost continual shots of oil, most of which found
their way into the bilge. Oil sludge and oil-soaked bulkheads have been the
bane of many a current-day restorer (although they nicely preserved the
wood). Nor was Fay & Bowen giving away these engines. Suppose that, in 1925, you owned a 25’ Sport model Fay & Bowen ($3950 completely equipped) and you found that a temperamental motor was spurting oil into the forward cockpit. A replacement engine (LNS-43, 60-horsepower) with an electric starter would set you back $1520. You might decide to shop around for a Palmer or a Gray.
Fay & Bowen’s early boats were fantail models, gas-engine
copies of the successful steam and naphtha boats of previous decades.
However, the first really popular Fay & Bowen stock model was the so-called
“Family Launch.” Describing it in 1911, the catalog told customers that “the
popular type of smart boat is the ‘torpedo’ hull, with flat underbody aft,
and with ‘cruiser’ pointed stern.” It had side bench seats and came in 21’
(5-horsepower) and 25’ (10-horsepower) models. These boats were planked with
cypress. A 25’ Special, introduced in 1911, sold for $875. It had three
upholstered seats mounted athwartships, an exposed engine just forward of
amidships, and wheel steering forward with the wheel mounted on the coaming
in addition to a wheel and throttle control on the port coaming next to the
operator’s seat. The Special was described as “roomy, staunch and safe” by
the catalog, which added that this speedier 25-footer “has the modern radial
stern, is much sharper forward, carries her motor further forward, and with
the same power (our ten-horsepower double-cylinder motor) attains an actual
speed of eleven miles an hour, which is materially faster than that of the
twenty-five foot stock model.” If the boat were to be used in salt water,
owners were advised to spend an additional $17.50 for a bronze rudder and
skeg. Southern white cedar, a lighter wood than cypress, was used as
planking. Introduced in 1914, the popular “Junior Runabouts” were powered by
4-cylinder, 4-cycle LC-41 engines rated for 27 horsepower at 1600 rpm and
designed to appeal to the ladies. In fact, the company’s advertisement read,
“Let your daughter do it.” Perhaps the most distinctive and memorable Fay & Bowen
design was introduced in 1920. A special boat designed by Naval Architect
Morris M. Whitaker of Nyack, N.Y., this was the imposing 30’ “Raised Deck
Runabout,” powered by a 4-cylinder, 60-horsepower Fay & Bowen LNS-43 engine,
a boat that cruised at 21 mph. These 30’ runabouts had the noteworthy golden
arrows running along the hull, a $200 optional expenditure for gold leaf.
Similar arrows were subsequent options on other hulls, particularly on the
27’ runabouts, to dress them up for fastidious or status-conscious buyers. The Fay & Bowen Engine Company had increasingly become a boat company since 1901, and in the ‘teens and early ‘twenties they hit their stride with boats that were as prized as Packards and Pierce Arrows. Following the construction of a few one-of-a-kind boats and two 35’ runabouts, post-W.W. I production resumed with a line of radial-stern boats and runabouts. There also was a 20’ runabout, introduced in the early 1920s for $1200 and powered by the Fay & Bowen type LN-40 engine, a 14-horsepower F-head design that had been introduced in 1916.
Fay & Bowen boats were largely framed with white oak,
which was also used for the sheer-strake, rub-strake and coaming. Fastenings
were copper. Planking was done with southern white cedar or red Louisiana
swamp cypress, known also as southern cypress. Mahogany was used for decks
and trim. Decks in the very early boats were cherry, and the first few
“Junior Runabouts” of 1914-15 had wide mahogany deck boards. In subsequent
years, however, most of Fay & Bowen’s boats had narrow, blind-nailed
mahogany strips for decking. This labor-intensive fitting of mahogany was
abandoned in the last half of the ‘twenties when wide planks were used again
on many of the boats. Most of the 24’ and 27’ boats built from 1926 on were
all-mahogany, and when the company dissolved in 1929 there was enough
mahogany stock left over to be purchased by William L. Vogt for the interior
paneling of Bush’s Diner at 380 Exchange Street in Geneva – a sad end for a
boatbuilder and a good beginning for a restauranteur. There was a good deal of brass on all of these boats, from
the “fantail-model” gas-engine launches of the 1901-1910 period to the
“torpedo-stern” (and flatbottom-aft) “autoboat” types of the ‘teens. Most
eye-catching was the distinctive brass throttle and spark quadrant mounted
within the automobile-type mahogany steering wheel. There were also brass
chocks, cleats and flagstaff sockets. By the late ‘teens and early
‘twenties, nickel-plating was a common option, and some buyers insisted on
it. For boats used in fresh water, the rudder and skeg were of steel,
heavily galvanized, and bronze was used for saltwater boats. Upholstery work for Fay & Bowen boats was completed on the
second floor of a 42’ x 45’ building that was built on the Geneva waterfront
about 1915 or 1916. On most boats, the upholstery was mounted to the seat
backs (“lazy backs”) and loose tufted cushions were provided for the seats.
Dark wine was the most popular color, although original upholstery in other
dark colors still turns up. In the same building Fay & Bowen cut tops, spray
hoods and canvas covers for the boats. A number of boats were ordered with a
canvas “automobile top.” If requested, side curtains also were available,
with a celluloid window inserted. Many Fay & Bowen owners ordered the
seemingly de rigueur wicker chairs, most of which were manufactured by a
separate company called Wicker-Kraft in Newburgh, N.Y They cost $5 apiece in
1911. The Fay & Bowen dealer network was impressive, with
agencies in nearly every state. One of the three Lake George dealerships was
the largest one in the U.S. It was owned by Walter Harris in Lake George
village at the foot of the lake, and it was run with verve and imagination
by this former steamboat pilot. His efforts were buttressed by the races
that the Fay & Bowen Engine Company organized on Lake George. The boats ran
between the Sagamore Hotel and Dome Island with separate races for each
model. It was Harris who was most outspoken about Fay & Bowen’s reluctance
to “go modem” in the mid- 1920s. An article by Robert E. Power in a 1917 issue of Power
Boating states that “Fay & Bowen’s sales extend to all parts of the world
and they ship to nearly every foreign country.” This may have been a slight
exaggeration, but in 1917 the company was shipping boats and engines to 22
foreign countries. Sales apparently were quite satisfactory in Great Britain
and Scandinavia. Four boats were shipped to Norway that summer. Another activity in 1917-1918 was the construction of
pontoons and fuselages under contract to the Curtiss Wright Company in
Buffalo. Built like boats with white pine planking over white ash frames,
these body components were supplied for Curtiss HS- 1 seaplanes intended for
patrols on the coast of France. Fay & Bowen built parts for 32 of them. Presiding over all this activity was short, sometimes
stern, always dapper Walter L. Fay, a man who invented dramatic ways to get
his points across. When a visitor to his office caused him agitation, he
would slam his fist through the paneled office door. Usually the visitor got
the message and scuttled away. Fay then, with a chuckle, would telephone an
employee back in the plant and ask that he come over to hang another door.
Fay ‘s office contained a closet in which several doors were held in
reserve. Similarly, his pantry at home contained a shelf stacked with
chipped bowls and plates. If there were a dinner-table “discussion” he
wanted to win, he would stride into the pantry and toss a piece of china
down the nearby cellar stairs as a demonstration of serious purpose. Not
that he was all that serious. Despite his stern countenance and usually
formal attire, he was really a punster and humorist, known affectionately to
the younger generation as “Uncle Walter.” Notwithstanding a lack of formal
education, he read voraciously and knew Kipling’s poems by heart. It’s not clear how many boats Fay & Bowen launched during its 1901-1929 history as a boatbuilder. The best guess is about 900. Hull numbers of extant boats run chronologically from 001 to 875. William C. Smith of Morristown, N.J., has compiled a roster of Fay & Howen hulls and numbers. Prospective and present owners of the boats are urged not to accept the alleged vintage of a Fay & Bowen unless it’s adequately documented. The exact hull number usually can be found stamped beneath the seats, on the engine compartment hatches, and on the hull. Bill Smith furnishes the following guidelines for owners who know their boat’s serial number and are trying to determine its date: Years Sequential Hull Serial Numbers In addition to the launches and runabouts, Fay & Bowen
built a 40’ “Day Cruiser,” which its 1911 catalog describes as a half-cabin
cruising yacht with complete equipment. One such boat has survived – the
1906 Aliquippa, owned by Dr. John Ross of Ontario. She is now powered by a
6-cylinder, 125-hp Chrysler engine and draws admiring glances at the
Canadian antique boat shows in which she appears. Another Fay & Bowen
cruiser was the 24’ Valima, possibly the only cruiser ever built by Fay &
Bowen with actual overnight sleeping accommodations. She was used by the
company to entertain prospects. Although Walter Fay didn’t particularly
enjoy recreational boating, others in his family felt differently. His wife,
Minnie G., used Valima for bridge parties, and his daughter honeymooned
aboard her. The boat can be found today in the Finger Lakes. Fay & Bowen entered the 1920s as a successful builder and
exporter of gentlemen’s runabouts and engines, an important exhibitor at the
New York Motor Boat Show, a company with valid expectations of continued
success. But they were soon to have major competition from people who built
the new “speedboats” – and sold them for less. As Walter Fay’s daughter
recollected, Fay & Bowen boats of the 1920s “were very expensive, even in
those days.” While the company’s prices seemed reasonably competitive up
through the end of World War I, it was in the 1920s that the Fay & Bowen
price structure fell out of step with the marketplace. In 1921 John Hacker,
whose boats were compared to Buicks, was selling a snappy 21’ 5” runabout
with full equipment for $1975. Somehow, the Hacker seemed more appealing and
had more popular features than, say, the slightly larger Fay & Bowen Junior
Runabout at $2400 (which represented two years of wages for the average
American worker). Price pressures became more intense as the decade
progressed. In 1925 Fay & Bowen was selling its 25’ Sport Model (with a
forward cockpit) for $3950. A 26’ Elco cruiser could be had for $1750. A 26’
Chris-Craft runabout could be had for $2875 in 1925, a year when Chris-Craft
sales more than doubled over 1924. Then came 1926. Dodge was offering a 22’ Runabout with a
30-horsepower engine for $2475 (equivalent to more than $40,000 today). For
an extra $500, one could opt for a 90-horsepower war-surplus Curtiss Aero
engine that would push the boat at 35 mph. A Curtiss-powered Dodge Watercar
could be had for $3475, a price lower than that asked by Fay & Bowen for its
slower and more staid “Raised Deck Runabout.” By the time 1928 rolled around, Gar Wood was able to
deliver a sleek, sensational Baby Gar runabout that did 40 mph with a
Scripps engine. The base price was $4500 - just about the same price as Fay
& Bowen’s top-of-the-line runabout. It was no contest. Speed had become king
in the marketplace, along with the new speedboat styling of hard-chine
varnished-mahogany hulls with multiple cockpits let into their bright decks. The handwriting was on the wall for Fay & Bowen in the
mid-1920s. Competitors’ sales were taking off. Dealers began to drift away
from Fay & Bowen and its sales slackened. Directors and management of the
company then must have made what turned out to be some basically wrong and
short-sighted decisions: continue to build boats with long forward decks and
generous after cockpits with wicker chairs, cut boatbuilding costs and
implement a few copy-cat tactics in order to boost sales. In about 1925 the “new” Fay & Bowen boats showed some of
this allegedly forward thinking applied to what was then (and isn’t now) a
backward product. Steering went from being rod to cable. Narrow planks were
replaced by wide, less-costly ones. Cypress was dropped and mahogany was
used for hulls. Plainer, more conventional bronze hardware from
Wilcox-Crittenden was used instead of some of the more distinctive
custom-cast bronze pieces. Meanwhile, the Fay & Bowen promotional material remained
unchanged. Words that once were appropriate suddenly seemed pointless and
anachronistic: “You will find in this craft a remarkable combination of all
those intangible elements which taken together make up what is best
described by the single word ‘class.’” “You can start to make your train with certainty that the 40 H.P. engine will rush you along at twenty miles an hour, while the stylish raised sheer and low bow wave prevent you from getting wet. You can float along in the moonlight at reduced speed, or go into the races, with equal assurance that the ‘class’ of our outfit applies as well to her dependable performance as to her outward appearance.”
“Beautiful, seaworthy, dependable and quiet, she is the
‘last word’ in marine fitness.” The company just did not understand that the
days of the Gibson girls had passed. The final couple of years (1926-1928) must have been
painful for those who had known the organization a decade before. It was
particularly difficult for Walter Fay, who had been its guiding light until
he retired from active management in 1919. Walter C. Ware served as
president during Fay & Bowen’s fall from glory. Why Walter Ware simply
didn’t re-tool is a mystery. Whether he thought Fay & Bowen would eke out an
existence on minimal orders, whether he thought the old “touring-car” style
of boat would always have customers, whether he lacked capital to finance
the necessary tooling, or whether he simply lacked vision is unclear. There
exist some strong allegations that Ware and a crony simply “milked” the
company for personal profit. Ware had been a subject of anxiety among Walter
Fay’s confidantes, who had urged him to reconsider Ware’s appointment as
president. In any case, there was a certain inevitability about the demise
of this great little boatbuilding enterprise. It is wrong to say, as some amateur historians have
claimed, that the Depression caused the demise of the Fay & Bowen Engine
Company. The company was formally dissolved eight months before the crash.
After 29 reasonably glorious years, it was dissolved officially on February
25, 1929 by New York State Supreme Court Justice Willis K. Gillette in
Rochester. An article in the Geneva Daily Times of February 26, 1929,
reported that “Reluctance of a majority of the stockholders to support a
movement of the board of directors of the concern to raise additional
capital is said to have led to the annual meeting of the company, held on
December 11th last. The directors were empowered to take the necessary steps
to liquidate the assets and dissolve the corporation following the failure
to raise the additional capital.” The Fay & Bowen Engine Company buildings were sold at public auction for $19,600. A Philadelphia firm purchased the engine portion of the business and moved the equipment to that city. In fact, new Fay & Bowen engines were found in Philadelphia about a decade ago. Glenn W. Gray was appointed the receiver, and he reconstituted the company as something called FayBow. Gray must have had a flair for public relations, for he
hoodwinked a writer for the April 10, 1929, issue of Motor Boat to describe
him as a “chief executive who is thoroughly acquainted with all of the
ramifications of the marine and motor boat industry.” Eight short years
later there was not even a telephone listing for FayBow, the upstart
successor to the illustrious Fay & Bowen Engine Company. FayBow’s mission was a simple one: to generate publicity,
hoping thereby to stimulate sales of its racing-style outboards and copy-cat
mahogany inboards. Its advertising was designed to suggest speed, speed,
speed. There was a 1929 Motor Boat photograph showing the colorful Leo
Davids, who had been the Fay & Bowen plant manager in 1928, crossing the
finish line of the Finger Lakes
Similarly, another 1929 publication touted the FayBow
Static, also showing Leo Davids at the controls. The advertising reads: “A
new type of hydroplane. Exceptionally fast, seaworthy and substantially
built. A boat that will stand the terrific strain of very high speed. Not a
one-season boat, but built to last. Steadier and more comfortable for long
distance racing than any other racing boat built... Lengths: 13’ 9” (weight
135 lbs.) and 11’ 9” (weight 85 lbs.). Either model will do better than 40
miles an hour.” FayBow also built some speedy 18’, 21’, 25’ and 27’
runabouts that closely resembled the Dodge vee-bottomed boats. Although the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Great
Depression that followed were not, as noted, the cause of the demise of the
Fay & Bowen Engine Company, the troubles of the 1930s finally killed FayBow
Boats. It was a slow death, by all accounts, with some sort of business
being conducted until 1937. There is some confusion in the minds of
antique-powerboat collectors and enthusiasts as to what the name of the
company was at different periods in its history. The Fay & Bowen name
appeared in advertising until the Autumn of 1929, and after that the company
was FayBow. The name was never FayBowen. And a FayBow boat was not a Fay &
Bowen. As the old company’s literature boasted: “Fay & Bowen is in a class
by itself.”
|
Barbara
Smith’s Aida II, 
Barry
White’s 1912 25’ Special Mischief, which he brought to last year’s Rideau
Romp.
“Instead
of asking our customers to spend their vacations in finishing and testing
our motors, WE DO IT HERE and we do it THOROUGHLY.”
