Synopsis
Bill Simpson and Dave Kuntz
Men, it has been suggested, do not own boats; boats own men.
Pardon Me owned five men, all of great ego and considerable wealth.
Pardon Me tells the story of the world’s largest runabout in words and vintage photographs. It also, by happenstance, reveals what motivates powerful men and what they will do to get what they want.
At the close of World War II, Charles Lyon of Oak Island, Chippewa Bay, commissioned Pardon Me. His desire was simple–to own the biggest, fastest boat on the St. Lawrence River.
To get what he wanted he hired the premier naval architect in the world, John L. Hacker. Hacker’s design was custom built by Hutchinson Boat Works in Alexandria Bay, New York, just eight miles upriver from Lyon’s Oak Island home.
Over the next forty years, Pardon Me would travel the country from New York to Michigan to Florida, before finally winding up back on the St. Lawrence River at the Antique Boat Museum.
This is her story.
A Special Edition Book, Pardon Me can be purchased exclusively from Captain Spicer’s website.