PAST IMPERFECT:The remarkable history of king of steam Fred Marriott and the Stanley Steamer, writes BOB MONTGOMERY
THE NEWS in the past week that a British team which included the grandson of famed record breaker Sir Malcolm Campbell had broken the World Land Speed Record for steam powered vehicles got me thinking about the remarkable record they had just broken and its connection with Ireland.
The British team recorded an average speed of 139.848mph, beating the previous record of 127mph set by American Fred Marriott driving a Stanley Steamer in January 1906. Thus, by a margin of just 12.848mph the old record of Fred Marriott was beaten after a gap of 103 years.
The Stanley Rocket was a remarkable car. It was built in the autumn of 1905 and was the first car to be powered by what was to become known as the 30hp Stanley engine. It was mounted in the rear of the chassis, on the rear axle, with the single boiler directly behind the driver, and the burner mounted beneath the engine. The Rocket had no springs and was a light wood construction with bicycle-style wheels. Shaped like a cigar with pointed ends, it broke the world records for the one kilometre, one mile, two miles and five miles distances in January 1906. All of the new records it set were at speeds over 120mph, except for the five miles which was set at a speed of 108 mph.
Stanley’s driver, Fred Marriott, at first felt there was something wrong with the Rocket. He could feel a tingling in his legs when he got up to a certain speed and this became so bad he could hardly hold onto the steering wheel. It turned out to be static electricity and eventually Fred wore “heavy paddin’ in the seat of my pants, and up my back, and rubber pads on my soles. Helped some, but we taped the wheel, then we completely taped my hands where they touched the wheel and up to above my wrists.”
After setting the records the Stanleys returned to their base at Newton and set about improving the performance of the Rocket. So numerous were the detail changes that, although it looked the same car as used in 1906, in reality it was a completely new Rocket.
In 1907 the team returned to Ormond Beach intent on setting new records but, unlike in 1906 when the beach surface was smooth, now it was rough. Nevertheless, Fred Marriott was travelling at over 190mph and still accelerating when he crossed the starting line!
The Rocket, still accelerating, is believed to have hit a rough patch on the beach and suddenly became airborne and went out of control. In the resulting crash, the Rocket was completely destroyed and Fred Marriott was fortunate to survive with his life, although he was badly injured.
Looking at the leading-edge technology in the British car which has just succeeded in raising the Stanleys and Fred Marriott’s record to 139.949mph, one cannot but be amazed of what the Stanley team achieved with a single boiler (the British car has 12 boilers), wooden construction and bicycle wheels, not to mention a driver who was either very, very brave or had a complete lack of imagination!
Interestingly, Marriott came to Ireland in the summer of 1906 to drive a Stanley Steamer in the Ballinaslaughter Hillclimb in Co Wicklow and caused quite a stir. But that’s a story to save for another day.