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| Research Help For A Novel, Please |
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dmcronin
New member
Username: dmcronin
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2009
| | Posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 - 04:21 pm: | 
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Hi, I just found these boards while doing research for a mystery novel set off the southern coast of Massachusetts. I am narrowing down the time for the novel to hopefully late 1800s / early 1900s.
I want to know if anyone can help point me in the right direction (or just tell me if you know)for the types of small craft with gasoline engines that would be around at those times. The setting is an isolated island close off the coast and I want most travel to be via sail with only a very small number of powerboats just coming onto the scene: like maybe only the early Coast Guard has one or two and maybe a couple of companies and just a small handful of rich people or experimenters.
The time will be somewhere 1890 to 1910 so I want to find out options for what the best year is for the scenario I layed out and how to get a good description of the boat(s) and how they ran, did they use gas, how available was gas around Cape Cod, etc. I want to do some description of the powertrain and whatever other details I can to bring some authenticity to the story. Thanks for any advice. |
ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie
Post Number: 1088
Registered: 01-2002
| | Posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 - 07:17 pm: |
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David,
Feel free to e-mail me additional particulars and I can assist you.
Off the top of my head any Coast Guard boats in that era would have most likely still been steam powered. However it seems to me that the combination of sail, steam and internal combustion would give you a lot of latitude for some interesting writing.
By 1910 there were many gas inboard manufacturers. But in 1890 there were precious few. Especially ones that ran good if at all.
There are also several books written by Stan Grayson on old marine engines.
His publishing company is Devereux Books
The web page is here
Hope this helps and feel free to e-mail me for more info.
Ernie |
dmcronin
New member
Username: dmcronin
Post Number: 2
Registered: 10-2009
| | Posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 - 09:11 pm: |
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Thank you very much for the quick response. This will help me get in the right direction. |
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