# White mercury



## Ttexastom (Jan 20, 2018)

Bet some of the members have seen a white mercury. Owned one on a 1959 cutter boat with cable steering. Learned my lesson early on. Anyone else own a white mercury. This was own my first outfit and was a lesson well earned. The cutter had fins on it like cars of that time period.


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## LDUBS (Jan 21, 2018)

Ttexastom said:


> Bet some of the members have seen a white mercury. Owned one on a 1959 cutter boat with cable steering. Learned my lesson early on. Anyone else own a white mercury. This was own my first outfit and was a lesson well earned. The cutter had fins on it like cars of that time period.



Huh, I can't remember having ever seen one. Just doesn't seem right for some reason. LOL

Sounds like you had a bad experience with the '59 cutter/white Merc. Was it the motor or the boat? 

BTW, I heard of this guy named Ahab had a bad experience with a white whale. :LOL2:


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## BillPlayfoot (Jan 21, 2018)

I have seen a white Mercury outboard. It is part of a collection a friend of mine has


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## CedarRiverScooter (Jan 21, 2018)

My dad had a houseboat with twin white 40 mercs. They were temperamental, true to the brand. He kept a hammer handy to tap on the carbs.

Not sure if it was white, but I remember one that was mid-50's vintage & it had 2 starters. One started it in fwd & the other in reverse. lower unit was direct drive.

I bet there was a little praying involved when you needed reverse to avoid hitting the dock, & you had to shut motor off & restart it.


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## Ttexastom (Jan 21, 2018)

Bad experience with white mercury, stayed in shop a lot
Cutter boat was ok, full v could turn on a dime, the cable steering was a nightmare, had the cable come off pulley running maybe 25 took a ride up on bank
It was time period, hard to find a decent fishing boat. This was pre bass boat era .fished out of this ski boat till i could do better
Thankful that sears store opened in athens. Got a 12 foot jon with 6hp gamefisher and never looked back. Lake hartwell was new then and everybody had to have a ski boat. Most of the old timers still fished with cane poles on the bank. 
Felt that more fish could be caught away from shore. Ditto the zebco 33


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## LDUBS (Jan 22, 2018)

Ttexastom said:


> Bad experience with white mercury, stayed in shop a lot
> Cutter boat was ok, full v could turn on a dime, the cable steering was a nightmare, had the cable come off pulley running maybe 25 took a ride up on bank
> It was time period, hard to find a decent fishing boat. This was pre bass boat era .fished out of this ski boat till i could do better
> Thankful that sears store opened in athens. Got a 12 foot jon with 6hp gamefisher and never looked back. Lake hartwell was new then and everybody had to have a ski boat. Most of the old timers still fished with cane poles on the bank.
> Felt that more fish could be caught away from shore. Ditto the zebco 33



I enjoyed reading this. I had to look at an image of a cutter boat to refresh my recollection. I remember those style boats well. I remember my Dad was constantly fiddling with the pulley & springs steering system on our small boat.


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## Ttexastom (Feb 12, 2018)

Been doing some research on mercury since first post. The original mercurys were painted white when carl kiekhaefer owned the company. The company was sold to brunswick corporation in 1962 at which time they decided to do a color change. So if you see a white mercury its a safe bet that it was made for 1962


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## CedarRiverScooter (Feb 12, 2018)

Found this on Laing's outboard history page:


During the summer of 1961, Ann Strang- the mother of Mercury executive Charlie Strang- visited her son and a team of engineers at a research lab in Oshkosh, Wis. Her son explained their efforts to make the new 100 HP outboard appear smaller and more compact in size. Ann's observation and suggestion forever changed the face of Mercury outboards. She stated "Well, a large woman always wears a black dress. Why don't you paint it black?" The group concurred. In Charlie's own words "We painted one black and it shrunk about 20 percent!" It was in the fall of that same year, as a 1962 model, the first black Mercury and the industry's first 100 HP outboard motor came off the line. Who would have thought it started with a black dress?


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## Crazyboat (Feb 12, 2018)

Old Mercs were also dark green for a time, they have white ones again today.


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