Sir Charles William Feilden Hamilton (26 July
1899 – 30 March 1978), generally known as
Bill Hamilton, was a New Zealand engineer
who developed the modern jetboat, and founded
the water jet manufacturing company, CWF Hamilton
Ltd.
Hamilton never claimed to have invented the
jet boat. He once said "I do not claim to
have invented marine jet propulsion. The honour
belongs to a gentleman named Archimedes, who
lived some years ago." What he did was refine
the design enough to produce the first useful
modern jet boat.
== Early life ==
Hamilton was born at Ashwick Station near
Fairlie, New Zealand.He survived an aeroplane
accident returning to Rongotai Airport (Wellington)
in poor conditions on 19 February 1936. The
collision with the anemometer mast took the
starboard wing off the fastest 'plane in the
country, the Miles Falcon Six he was travelling
in, and pilot Malcolm "Mac" McGregor died
in hospital.At the age of 21 he bought the
'Irishman Creek' sheep station in South Canterbury.
After a trip to England became fascinated
with motor cars and raced a Bentley. He decided
to develop his own heavy machinery. He built
a workshop, developed an excavator with an
earth scoop and built a dam to supply water
for a hydroelectric plant to supply power
for domestic use and for his engineering projects,
and started a manufacturing business.
== Ski tows ==
In 1947 tourism pioneer Harry Wigley of Mount
Cook airline fame commissioned him to design
and build the first tow for the Coronet Peak
Ski Field near Queenstown New Zealand's first
commercial skifield. In 1949 he completed
a similar tow at Mount Ruapehu. Within a few
years he had perfected the Hamilton Model
B design that is still in use for nutcracker
ski tows in New Zealand and Australia.
== Christchurch ==
The main manufacturing business, which had
started in the workshop at Irishman Creek
in 1939, moved to Christchurch in 1948. From
there the company supplied heavy machinery,
in particular to the Waitaki River hydroelectric
projects.
== Jet boats ==
In the 1950s Hamilton set out to try to build
a boat that could navigate the shallow fast
flowing rivers where he lived. The rivers
were too shallow for propeller driven boats
to navigate as the propeller would hit the
river bottom.
He investigated the American Hanley Hydro-Jet,
a model which drew in water and fired it out
through a steerable nozzle underneath the
boat. Even when further adapted it did not
work well. An employee suggested moving the
nozzle to just above the waterline.
When he took one of his early demonstration
jet boats to the United States, the media
scoffed when he said he planned to take it
up the Colorado River, but in 1960 three Hamilton
jet boats, the Kiwi, Wee Red and Dock, became
the first and only boats to travel up through
the Grand Canyon. The critics were silenced
further when the boats went down river through
the Grand Canyon to cache petrol just prior
to the uprun. The Grand Canyon trip planning,
logistics for 2,500 gallons of fuel, and fuel
placement was coordinated by famous Grand
Canyon river runner Otis "Dock" Marston.
== CWF Hamilton & Co Ltd ==
The engineering company Hamilton founded,
CWF Hamilton & Co Ltd, is now the holding
company for two companies, Hamilton Jet and
Hamilton Marine, that are focused on the production
of waterjet propulsion systems. The company
has divested itself of its other engineering
activities.
== Honours ==
In the 1961 New Year Honours, Hamilton was
appointed an Officer of the Order of the British
Empire, for services to engineering. In the
1974 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed
a Knight Bachelor, for services to manufacturing.
== Books ==
"Wild Irishman", 1979, Lady Peggy Hamilton,
(Publisher A.H. & A.W. Reed)
"Hamilton Jet: The biography of an icon",
2014, John Walsh, ISBN 9780473289904 (Publisher:
CWF Hamilton and Co
