[GB SISSON]

I have a couple of bronze propeller shafts with props and stuffing boxes. Would love to find a gearbox. When I was 14 my folks moved us from Seattle to a small coastal town South of Boston. There I met Hermon Maynard Sr and Jr. Hermon Sr operated Maynard Fire Apparatus on Rt 3A in Marshfield Mass. They had this rather cobbled up plywood boat appropriately named the 'May-Fire' This 22' started out as an outboard, but they added 2' to the stern and installed a 51 merc with the car 3 speed. No thought of a thrust bearing. We ran it in high and when coming into the dock, that reverse gear was spinning the prop so slowly that it hardly any braking ability. H Jr was always the captain when we took it out so I don't remember if there was still a clutch linkage involved. I remember a marine engineer friend years later mentioning how a boat/ship/vessel of any kind is pushed through the water, no matter the load or tow etc "on the end of a broom handle"... Meaning of course the prop shaft. I wonder how the May-Fire's tranny held up to years of that. Blucar, that would be so fun to find something like that in a shed. And yes, so much torque!