I think back to the day when…”There I was, with my trusty 1960 Scott Atwater motor running back to the dock after a day of fishing off the North Jetty of Galveston Bay, and suddenly all h#*$ broke loose.
Flashback:
The motor was a 25hp Scott with no Bail-o-Matic. I bought it from a Bohemian that lived in Pearland, Texas. He made me such a good deal it was hard to pass up. I was working as an aircraft mechanic for Trans Texas Airways making about $5.50 per hour, so I did not have much money. He told me the motor ran, started it in a barrel and it worked OK. However, when I ran it on my boat, the motor would cut out from time to time like it had a bad spark plug. I replaced the plugs and it ran a little better. It was always a little hard to start, but once it was running it ran OK. I usually ran it on Lake Houston, but decided to go to Galveston to fish the jetties. That is when the motor decided to show its true colors.
Fast Forward:
The motor quit right in the middle of the Houston Ship Channel, with a big freighter steaming down the channel. I tried to get the motor started but to no avail. I thought I was a goner. The “Toshiba Maru” blasted its horn, hoping I could get out of its way. Its skipper finally saw my boat dead in the water and steered slightly to starboard missing my boat by about 50 yards. When the wake from the freighter hit my boat, it almost capsized. One wave washed over the gunnels and filled the boat with a foot of water. Another fisherman saw what had happened, and gave me a tow to the dock. If I could have ripped that motor off the transom, it would be at the bottom of the ship channel right now. That next week, I went and bought me a Johnson outboard and have owned one ever since.
And that’s the truth – Chip Rathbun
