It made a racket

Nathan Hooker Fulford was the brother of my great grandfather. He moved to Cortez, Florida with his two brothers and two sisters 120 years ago. They were farmers and fishermen in North Carolina and since Cortez was located on
Sarasota Bay fishing was more practical than farming.

Nate was somewhat of an innovator in the fishing business, a trait his grandchildren have continued at A P Bell Fish Company.

Around 1910 he was the first person to use a motor on a fishing boat. Before his motor all the boats were powered by wind or the fishermen pushing it thru the water using a long pole.


The following transcript is from an interview my cousin Doris Green took from Herman Sidney Guthrie on April 18, 1974:

"It was just a little boat, I would say about 25 feet

long. It had a four horse Barker engine in it. It made the awfulest racket you ever heard. It would wake you up. After that, other fishermen got them. My Dad bought one. He sent it to Miami to have a muffler put on to try to cut the racket."

I couldn't find a picture of a Barker outboard. This old Evinrude was on display at the Calvert Maritime Museum on Solomons Island, Maryland when we visited last year.