The Saga of Marion Cooper's "Mercury"

By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian

In the years before World War II, some of the best boat racing in the United States was provided by the popular 725 Cubic Inch Class-the forerunner of the modern Unlimited Class-of inboard hydroplanes. The largely homebuilt 725s raced mostly in the Mid-West on the old Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association circuit.

One of the more distinguished examples of a 725 Class competitor was the MERCURY, owned by Marion Cooper of Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Cooper had previously campaigned the 510 Cubic Inch Class HERMES I and the 725 Class HERMES III in MVPBA competition.

Built in 1939, the MERCURY was one of the first boats to make successful use of sponsons (pontoon-like running surfaces). In a 1973 interview with this writer, Cooper remembered the craft as being rather large for its day.

"It was real wide and most of the sponsons were built underneath. Only about four or five inches of the sponsons stuck out from the sides. MERCURY was similar to a Ventnor (design), except that the Ventnor hulls had the sponsons all to the outside."

The MERCURY used a 1914 vintage Hispano-Suiza ("Hisso") aircraft engine, which had eight dual Stromberg carburetors. In Cooper's words, "Back in the pre-World War II days, you didn't have such things as fuel pumps. You had to have someone operate the hand pressure pump. The riding mechanic (Charlie Schott) had to watch the gauge and keep the right amount of pressure in the fuel tank to keep from flooding the thing. He had to keep the pressure up to as much as five pounds and not over six.

"That went on for years because the pumps that they had up to that time wouldn't supply enough fuel. Of course, in one sense of the word, it was a dangerous proposition running pressure on the tank because it resulted in fires occasionally on account of the pressure on the tank would sometimes break loose. But we were always able to put it out before it got too bad."

All of the race boats of that era were stern-draggers and had propellers that were completely submerged. And there was considerably more wetted surface area, compared to today. So, they didn't kick up very much in the way of a roostertail. But the amazing thing about MERCURY was that it wanted to prop-ride. This was unheard of at the time.

Because no one knew much about such a radical concept as a semi-submerged propeller, the MERCURY crew kept moving the weight back to try to keep the back end down. This was the wrong thing to do. If they had shifted the weight forward, MERCURY-not SLO-MO-SHUN IV-might have become the first successful three-point prop-rider in the Thunderboat ranks. And this was ten years before SLO-MO ever wet a sponson!

The 725 Class tour usually consisted of from eight to ten races, wherein the boats ran clockwise rather than counter-clockwise because their engines turned that way. Flag starts without any blackout or digital clock were also the rule.

"The 725s rode rougher than your Unlimiteds do today," Cooper recalled. "Of course, an Unlimited is about as easy riding a boat of them all. Although, when you get a jolt in an Unlimited, it's a good one."

MERCURY made her presence felt in races against the generally more expensive and more exotic-looking Gold Cup Class rigs of the American Power Boat Association. She took an overall fourth at the 1939 APBA Gold Cup contest on the Detroit River, running behind Guy Simmons in MY SIN, Dan Arena in NOTRE DAME, and Harold Wilson in MISS CANADA III

The differences between the 725 and Gold Cup Class contingents were often more sociological than mechanical. The boats themselves usually qualified under both codes. But the APBA was more "yacht club" oriented, while the MVPBA was more of a grassroots "blue collar" persuasion. At the 1939 Gold Cup, the 725s' pit area-actually a parking lot-was some distance from the Gold Cuppers' pits. And the 725 Class participants' weren't even accorded the courtesy of pit passes that allowed them to visit the Gold Cup Class pit area.

The team of Cooper and Schott won the Seagram Trophy at the 1940 Evansville Jaycees Regatta on the Ohio River at Evansville, Indiana. MERCURY rebounded from a First Heat disqualification (for cutting a course marker) with a first-place in the Second Heat. "Wild Bill" Cantrell's WHY WORRY-a Ventnor three-pointer-won the initial heat, but flipped while trying to catch Cooper on the last turn of Heat Two. MERCURY was declared the victor on the basis of having turned a faster heat speed than WHY WORRY.

For two hours, MERCURY was the fastest boat in the world in its category, when she ran 98 miles per hour on a mile straightaway at the 1940 President's Cup Regatta on the Potomac River. Then, WHY WORRY went out and did 99 MPH.

In the race for the 1940 President's Cup, MERCURY finished fourth behind Arena in NOTRE DAME, Simmons in MY SIN, and Ed Hudson in MISS SYNDICATE.

Cooper and MERCURY took first-place in the 1941 Ohio Valley Trophy at Cincinnati and the 1942 Springfield Jaycees Regatta at Lake Springfield, Illinois. Second-place finishes were recorded in the 1939 Calvert Trophy, the 1941 Webb Trophy, and the 1942 Ohio Valley Trophy.

Before World War II lowered the curtain on organized racing, MERCURY won the 1942 Emil Auerbach Memorial Trophy Race on Biscayne Bay in Miami, which carried with it the 725 Cubic Inch Class National Championship.

MERCURY's major competition during the pre-war years was Cantrell's WHY WORRY, which likewise used the V-8 Hisso. Between the two of them, the MERCURY and the WHY WORRY teams accounted for most of the major trophies on the MVPBA circuit.

Other contenders of that era included the likes of Jim Anderson in WARNIE, Chuck Wilkinson in PIN BRAIN IV, George Davis in HERMES IV, Noble Lanier in HERMES V, Bill Mennen in WHO CARES, and J.S. Brown in KING STATEN.

After World War II, Cooper sold MERCURY to Oliver Elam of Ashland, Kentucky, who re-powered her with an enormous Curtiss Conqueror engine. But the craft generally did not see good competition, on account of the 725 and Gold Cup Classes being largely displaced by the Unlimited Class. MERCURY was obsolete but did manage to take second-place in the 1947 Harwood's Trophy Marathon around Manhattan Island with Elam at the wheel.

Elam later used the name MERCURY on a Ventnor-designed 7-Litre hydroplane that was highly successful. This craft won many races in the late 1940s and early 1950s using a Fageol bus engine. The second MERCURY is still in circulation today as part of the APBA's popular vintage category and currently owned by Ike Kielgass of Seattle, Washington.

Marion Cooper, for the balance of his career, concentrated on the 225, 266, 7-Litre, and Unlimited Classes and built three Limited hulls. In 1946, he won the national 225 Cubic Inch crown with HORNET and, in 1959, set a pair of world competition heat records of 81.008 and 81.670 with the 7-Litre HORNET and the 266 Cubic Inch TENNESSEE KID respectively.

Cooper was a back-up driver for the Stan Sayres-owned SLO-MO-SHUN IV and SLO-MO-SHUN V team and also handled Austin Snell's MISS ROCKET in the 1957 Seattle Gold Cup.

In 1961 and 1962, Marion achieved fame as the original pilot of the community-owned MISS MADISON. In 1961, Cooper and MISS M won the second-division Seattle Trophy Race at the Seafair World's Championship Regatta on Lake Washington.

Cooper's 23-year career span in the APBA Gold Cup series is one of the longest in the history of that storied event. He drove in his first Gold Cup in 1939 with MERCURY; his last was in 1962 with MISS MADISON.

Other extraordinarily long Gold Cup careers include: Horace Dodge, Jr., 26 years (1925-1951); Bill Cantrell, 26 years (1939-1965); Bill Muncey, 26 years (1955-1981); and Chip Hanauer, 22 years (1977-1999).

In comparing the pre-war 725 Class to the post-war Unlimited Class, Cooper observed in 1973, "Except for the pickle-fork designs and the front-seat affairs, I haven't seen too many changes in the boats themselves. The races are kind of like they've always been. There has been quite a bit of improvement in the rules and regulations since I was a driver. But a race now is just about like a race back then."