THE
SAGA OF "HERMES
III"
By Fred Farley - APBA Unlimited Historian
The 725 Cubic Inch Class of racing hydroplanes
was a popular regional class during the years between the World
Wars. The 725s were the showcase of the old Mississippi Valley
Power Boat Association circuit in the South and the Mid-West.
The 725 Class was comparable to the
Gold Cup Class of the American Power Boat Association. After World
War II, the 725s and the Gold Cuppers combined and changed over
to the Unlimited Class.
One of the most popular of the 725 Class
campaigners was the HERMES III, co-owned by George Davis and Turley
Carman of Vine Grove, Kentucky, and Marion Cooper of Louisville.
Cooper was the driver and Davis served as the riding mechanic,
while Carman owned the boat building facility in downtown Vine
Grove where the hydroplane was headquartered.
In later years, Marion achieved fame
as the original driver of the first MISS MADISON during 1961 and
1962. George drove the popular IT'S A WONDER between 1951 and 1957.
HERMES III was a step hydroplane, painted
black and yellow with orange checkers on the foredeck. She measured
22 feet by 5-1/2 feet, had a sharp curving bow and a deep notch
across the bottom amidships. The craft utilized a three-bladed
brass propeller that turned 3600 revolutions per minute. HERMES
III had a 15-gallon fuel tank and used one gallon of fuel every
three-quarters of a mile at racing speeds.
The engine was
a 1914 vintage Hispano-Suiza ("Hisso") V-8 power plant
that developed 240 horsepower. Although intended for 1800 rpm,
the Hisso did 2400. The gear ratio
was one revolution of the motor for every one and a half revolutions
of the propeller.
Hisso power was the engine of choice
in the 725 Class. It was intended for use in the Spad aircraft
during World War I. The Hisso's design concept was later used as
the basis for the V-12 Allison and Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.
HERMES III could do about 60 miles per
hour on the straightaway and posted heat speeds of over 50 mph.
Unlike the Gold
Cup boats, which used the "G" designation, the 725s utilized an "I" racing
numeral. HERMES III, throughout her career, carried the number
I-100.
In the years just prior to World War
II, a sizeable fleet of the largely homebuilt 725s called the Cincinnati
and Louisville area home.
During the 1920s
and '30s, the Motor City of Detroit reigned as the capital of power
boat racing in
North America. Three times (in 1937-38-39) the 725 Class boats
were invited by the prestigious Detroit Yacht Club to participate
in a special event, offered in conjunction with the APBA Gold Cup
race for the more expensive and more exotic-looking Gold Cup Class
contenders. The DYC gatherings provided the 725s-popularly known
as the "Haywire Class"-with their finest national showcase.
In those days, the boats raced clockwise-rather
than counter-clockwise-because the 725s didn't turn well to the
left. They also used flag starts without any blackout or digital
clock.
While en route
to Detroit that first year, an incident occurred that didn't get
reported in the newspapers.
In the words of George Davis, "We (Marion Cooper and I) were towing
HERMES III. I was over on the right-hand side and I'd pull a rope
to put the brakes on if we got in a close place. If the car brakes
wouldn't hold, then I'd pull the rope which would pull a lever
and that would work the brakes.
"We were going
along in the early morning and Cooper said, 'Whose boat is that
passing us?' And we looked
over to the right and there was our boat running along side us
plowing through a cornfield. We found out that our trailer hitch
had broken on one side. We got some baling wire and wired it back
on and got out of there real quick."
The HERMES team did extraordinarily
well in the three invitational races at Detroit. They finished
first in 1937 and second in 1938 with HERMES III. This was followed
by a third-place performance in 1939 with HERMES IV.
The victory in 1937 didn't come easily.
Co-pilots Cooper and Davis were involved in one of the more hair-raising
encounters in Detroit River racing history.
In the first heat of two 725 Class heats
on a 3-mile course, MISS CINCINNATI, JR., took an early lead with
HERMES III, WARNIE, MISS TRAILMOBILE, and WHY WORRY closely bunched.
MISS TRAILMOBILE-a 510 Cubic Inch Class rig that had stepped up
to run with the 725s-was caught in the cross wakes of two other
boats. Driver Jim Vetter lost control and ran over the WARNIE,
piloted by Warnie Anderson. MISS TRAILMOBILE then landed on top
of the HERMES III and knocked out the freeboard.
Miraculously, no one was seriously injured,
although the deck of the WARNIE was crushed on both sides. WARNIE,
an early cabover hydroplane, also suffered a gash just behind the
driver's seat caused by MISS TRAILMOBILE's propeller.
HERMES III went
on to win the heat at 54.800 miles per hour although, in Cooper's
words, "They had to
pull us out pretty quick because it would have sunk."
The final heat was a battle from start
to finish between the patched up HERMES III and WARNIE. HERMES
III again had the lead on lap two when the sheer plank let go on
the starboard side. The plank flapped dizzily and undoubtedly slowed
the boat down somewhat.
WARNIE then passed the ailing HERMES
III and proceeded to win the heat at 56.890 for the 12-mile distance.
The Cooper/Davis team nevertheless stayed close to the leader all
the way to the checkered flag and-in so doing-defeated third-place
Bill Cantrell in WHY WORRY and fourth-place Cam Fischer in MISS
CINCINNATI, JR.
HERMES III claimed the overall victory
in the 725 Class event with 700 points, compared to 625 for WARNIE
and 525 for WHY WORRY.
The 725s had
the option of entering the Gold Cup main event, since most of them
met the minimum requirements
for the APBA Gold Cup Class. But with the exception of MISS CINCINNATI,
JR., none of them chose to do so. The "Haywire Class" was basically
a "blue collar" category. HERMES III, WARNIE, and WHY WORRY weren't
quite in the same league as the NOTRE DAME or the EL LAGARTO or
the IMPSHI or the ALAGI, which were fielded by multi-millionaires.
The 725 Class participants nevertheless
acquitted themselves quite well at Detroit in 1937. The race committee
gratefully invited them back for 1938 and 1939.
Another notable 1937 performance by
HERMES III was a second-place finish behind WARNIE at the Queen
City Regatta in Cincinnati.
The 1938 season emerged as another successful
campaign for the triumvirate of Marion Cooper, George Davis, and
Turley Carman. They won a pair of important races that year. And
both events took place on the legendary Ohio River.
At Evansville, Indiana, a new 725 Class
venue, HERMES III won both heats of a race sponsored by the local
Jaycees at speeds of 54.545 and 49.328. The pit area was the exact
same as the one used by the Unlimited hydroplanes since 1979.
Heat One was something of a destruction
derby as two early leaders-WHY WORRY and WARNIE-failed to finish
due to mechanical difficulties. WHY WORRY with Cantrell broke a
rudder on the backstretch of lap two; WARNIE with Anderson-who
appeared to have the race won-threw a couple of connecting rods
out the side of the Hisso engine and conked out just a few hundred
feet from the finish line.
Cooper and Davis weren't extended in
winning Heat Two at Evansville. HERMES III easily defeated Bill
Mennen driving WHO CARES, the oldest 725 Class boat in the fleet,
which had raced back in the 1920s as DOC'S II.
A few weeks later, the HERMES III team
added the prestigious Calvert Trophy to their treasure trove. They
did this by winning a 10-mile heat at the Ohio Valley Motor Boat
Racing Association Regatta in Cincinnati. The always-challenging
Ohio River was less than ideal for racing that day. Flood conditions
left the race course littered with debris, which caused problems
for quite a few of the boats.
HERMES III won the Calvert Trophy at
a speed of just over 51 miles per hour, followed by Bill Cantrell
in WHY WORRY and Chuck Wilkinson in PIN BRAIN III.
The same weekend as the Calvert Trophy,
HERMES III participated in two other events at Cincinnati-the Brad
Kreis Memorial Trophy and the Ohio Valley Trophy, also 10 miles
in length on a 2-1/2-mile course. HERMES III didn't finish the
Brad Kreis race (after striking a piece of driftwood and damaging
the drive shaft) but took second in the Ohio Valley race.
Victory in the
Ohio Valley Trophy went to a tiny 225 Cubic Inch Class upstart
named TOPS II, powered by
a 221 cubic inch Lycoming engine and driven by the popular Jack "Pop" Cooper
(no relation to Marion) of Kansas City, Missouri.
TOPS II, a three-point hydroplane, was
one of the very first boats in the world with sponsons on it. The
16-foot Ventnor hull, which was later renamed SLO-MO-SHUN I by
Seattleite Stan Sayres, won the Ohio Valley event at an unbelievable
68 miles per hour. This was embarrassingly close to the speeds
turned by the much larger and more powerful Gold Cup Class contenders.
Sponsons had been tried on race boats
since as early as 1915. But they had only just recently achieved
competitive results.
Clearly, the design of the future had
arrived. Only refinement of the three-point concept was all that
stood between the time-honored step hydroplane and obsolescence.
The HERMES teamed recognized this fact
of racing life. They retired HERMES III and built two sponson boats
of their own-HERMES IV in 1939 and HERMES V in 1941.
Also building three-point hulls for
the 1939 season were the WHY WORRY and MERCURY teams. From then
on, sponson boats accounted for most of the victories in the 725
Class.
As for HERMES III, she was sold to Chuck
Wilkinson of Louisville and renamed PIN BRAIN IV. Her last major
appearance was in the 1939 725 Class race at Detroit. With Wilkinson
driving, she finished fourth behind Cantrell in WHY WORRY, J.S.
Brown in KING STATEN, and Davis in HERMES IV.
Copyright © Fred Farley
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