TWICE FIRED ENGINEER BECOMES THE ROMAN GOD OF SPEED

Mercury is the first planet from the Sun, named after the ancient Roman Mercurius (Mercury), god of commerce and communication, and also messenger of the gods. So how is it that this name became the name of what is arguably the premier outboard motor producer in the marine industry? To start to answer that question we need to turn back time to the beginning of 1939, when E. Carl Kiekhaefer purchased an idled engine manufacturing plant in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, near his family’s farm. Included among the plant assets bought were 300 Thor marine engines that had been rejected and returned by a large retail customer due to operating problems. Kiekhaefer had the idea to sell the engines to provide needed capital for the business he had envisioned – manufacturing magnetic separators for the dairy industry. Instead of selling the engines for scrap, Kiekhaefer decided to make the most of them. 

Thor had been named after Thorwald Hansen, founder of the original engine company. The name was supposed to evoke images of the "God of Thunder," but the poorly designed engines more often evoked images of boats broken down on the water. Always one to be thinking and innovating, less than two weeks after assuming control of the bankrupt engine plant, Kiekhaefer had sketched an improved design for the engines and sent it to the retailer. He and his team focused on redesigning the engines into outboards "heavy enough to drive your boat, regardless of wind, weeds, waves, and weight." They replaced the original low-quality crankshafts with a forged version from the retailer's largest rival. The re-designed, re-tooled engines were marketed under a different, more trusted brand name, securing the order for Kiekhaefer, and providing his entry into the outboard motor business. By April of 1939, Kiekhaefer was introducing his new line of Thor outboard engines at the Milwaukee Sentinel Sportsman's Show.

Unlike Thor’s Hansen, Kiekhaefer had an unwavering commitment to quality that has become a true hallmark of Mercury Marine. He was born in Mequon, Wisconsin in 1906, and from an early age he was attracted to machines and had a drive to understand how things worked. During those early years he also determined that dairy farming would not be his life’s passion, so he left the farm to pursue a career in electrical engineering at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He went on to continue that education at the University of Wisconsin. Despite not receiving a formal degree until later in life, Kiekhaefer soon was engineering standards for marine engines that still apply today.

He began his career as a draftsman at Nash Motors in Milwaukee, but he soon became discontented drawing blueprints. At Nash, his curiosity to understand machines led to his distraction and termination. His next stop was Evinrude Motors, also in Milwaukee, but like Nash, this square peg in a round hole only lasted three months. He then landed at Stearn Magnetic, where he remained for 11 years until his purchase and rework of the Thor engines led to his founding the company that would become Mercury Marine.

Perhaps it was his questioning and drive toward achieving unrelenting high standards for the products on which he was working that led to culture clashes at the Nash and Evinrude organizations, but he never compromised on the products he produced or with the people who worked with him.

Having founded a company bearing his name- which did not change to Mercury Marine until 1971- Kiekhaefer threw himself into building engines. The Mercury brand name originated when Kiekhaefer realized he had potentially opened a can of worms by going into business with two mail-order houses when he had just narrowly escaped a disastrous outcome with one. He recognized that he, too, could sell outboard motors, and with that decision, the Mercury brand was born, named after the Roman God of Speed. Years later, after the business was sold, the name of the company was changed to incorporate the brand- Mercury Marine.

His innovations and newfound success made him suspicious of all inquiries into his design and manufacturing processes and the company’s R&D methodology. In 1957 he began searching for a test site far away from prying eyes – and complaining neighbors – where he could secretly test his marine engines day and night. The result of his search, like so many other Kiekhaefer projects, is the stuff of legends. From the air, his team spotted 1,400-acre Lake Conlin in a parcel of woods and swampland, inhabited only by alligators, snakes and panthers. To throw would-be spies off the trail the team only referred to the site as "Lake X."  To the delight of ad executives and boating writers everywhere, the name stuck. Workers from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin traveled to Lake X for months to build seawalls, boat launches, work buildings and a six-room "dorm".  Sleeping in trailers and eating in tents, the construction crew was under strict orders to reveal nothing about Lake X to anyone! 

Lake X ultimately became home to race teams and boat builders everywhere who sought improved performance for their boats. To this day, the "Dialed in at Lake X" decal affixed to an engine is a reminder to performance boaters that it received a coveted “thumbs up”  at the top-secret Lake X. Although they strayed for a time, in 2017 Mercury returned to the famed lake where it continues to test all its new V8 and V6 outboards.

Kieckhaefer led a colorful life never shying away from a challenge.  He received 200 patents, won 52 NASCAR races as an owner, resulting in championships in 1955 and 1956. Many of his inventions are fundamental to how marine power is applied today, essentially changing the boating industry forever. Teams under his personal direction have manufactured small "drone" motors for "target aircraft" and developed two-man chain saws for the U.S. military during World War II. That foray is a story unto itself. As part of the home war effort, in 1941, the military forced the ban of any non-military manufacturing using aluminum. This brought a halt to the building of outboards for leisure craft.

But as he did so many times, Kiekhaefer became the largest manufacturer of two-man chain saws for military use. Additionally, in order to continue engine research and development for future outboards, Kiekhaefer started work on a new project under the direction of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The Air Corps was looking to power radio-controlled target drones used for air-combat gunnery practice. By providing chain saws and target drones. The Kiekhaefer Corporation built a reputation for fast, flexible and innovative engineering. If that wasn’t enough, his love for auto racing led to his marrying the discipline of standard setting to the concept of creating "professional teams" in auto racing.

 Another hallmark of Kiekhaefer is the color of his engines. In the mid-1950s, Mercury engines were produced in a rainbow of colors. In fact, Mercury advertised itself as "the most colorful name in outboards". But by 1958, "Stark White" became Mercury's signature engine color. But with the introduction of the 6-cylinder 100hp "Tower of Power," outboards suddenly grew taller and wider. Designers feared that, when painted white, the new engine would look out of proportion to the boats it powered. Some suggest they needed to make it appear smaller. The legend has it, that one night, the mother of lead Mercury engineer Charlie Strang wandered into his office. Charlie explained to her the engine dilemma that kept him at the office to all hours. His mother replied, “The answer is simple. A large woman always wears a black to make her look smaller. Why don't you just paint the engine black?" To appease his mother, Strang painted an engine black,  "and surprisingly the engine looked like it shrank by 20 percent!" Phantom black became the new standard.

Sam Cooke sang it best with the lyric “change is gonna come” and Mercury was not immune. During the 1950s Kiekhaefer received dozens of acquisition offers from larger companies, but Kiekhaefer was dedicated to and possessive of the company he had built.  While he understood the benefits of merging with a financially stronger partner, he initially resisted. But by the decade's end, his resolve began to crumble under the continuous waves of offers from a virtual "who's who" of businesses- Borg-Warner, Motorola, Brunswick, AMF and even Chrysler. Eventually it was AMF, Chrysler and Brunswick that squared off to buy Kiekhaefer’s Company. Brunswick president Ted Bensinger emerged as the most determined to buy Mercury and was he willing to structure a deal that provided Kiekhaefer latitude to run the company. On Aug. 1, 1961, Mercury became a division of Brunswick.

The relationship between Kiekhaefer and Brunswick proved contentious, and Kiekhaefer eventually resigned to form a new company: Kiekhaefer Aeromarine. Following Kiekhaefer's death in 1983, his son, Fred, purchased Aeromarine and sold it to Brunswick thereby bringing all of Carl Kiekhaefer's innovations back under one roof. Mercury Marine remains a powerful entity of Brunswick Corporation. For more than eight decades, Mercury Marine’s history is truly legendary. It’s easy, although very time consuming, to list the major milestones that have changed the face of leisure boating- the first 100hp outboard in 1962, the first V-6 outboard in 1976 and the first fuel- injected supercharged sterndrive to produce more than 1000hp in 2004. Mercury has made countless significant advances that improved the quality of boating, so many so that the world of boating often takes them for granted. Instead, they should just thank Evinrude for firing the young engineer who single-handedly orchestrated all the change.

Note: Pictures reprinted from Mercury Marine, Sport Fishing Magazine, GM Today, Marine Business News and NASCAR Hall of Fame.