Monday, March 14, 2016

Charles Percival on a durability/endurance run, in Skagway Alaska, in the Abbott-Detroit Bull Dog


The Abbott-Detroit was a luxury automobile produced in Detroit from 1909-1916. Most were powered by Continental four or six-cylinder engines (a few carried eight-cylinder Herschell-Spillmans), considered by many to be the most durable engines of the time. Indeed, the company advertised that "Durability...stands out pre-eminently as a designating characteristic of all Abbott-Detroit cars." To prove this point, Abbott-Detroits were entered in numerous endurance contests, most notably Charles Percival's cross-continent adventure in the car above, nicknamed the "Bull Dog."


Percival and his mechanic/driver, George Brown, arrived in Skagway via steamship in late September of 1911, where he proclaimed (incorrectly) that "The Bull Dog was the first automobile ever in Skagway." After giving rides to many of the townspeople, they departed a few days later with Mr. J.J. Chambers of Skagway as an observer. Percival had hoped to cross the White Pass on snow, with runners on the Bull Dog's front wheels and spiked tires on the rear, but they had arrived too early for snow. Instead, they received permission to drive on the narrow-gauge railroad to get over the pass. The bumpy ride included crossing the 297' high steel bridge over Dead Horse Gulch, which they did at a brisk 15 mph in heavy fog.

It was a difficult trip. Between Lake Bennett and Caribou, Percival and Chambers walked alongside the car, laying down planks to cross bridges and culverts where the railroad ties were widely spaced. From Whitehorse to Carmacks they had to build corduroy sections to get across muddy portions of the old government trail. The unfrozen Yukon River prevented them from traveling beyond Carmacks, so they were forced to turn around. Despite their failure to reach Dawson, Percival and Brown were presented with a trophy from the Daily Alaskan for being the first to drive an automobile from Skagway to the Yukon River over the White Pass. While sailing south, the Bull Dog was supposed to become the first automobile to drive the streets of Juneau, but it never left the ship while docked there.

Percival logged only 50,000 miles on his journey, but that did not dissuade the Abbot Motor Car Company from boasting of the Bull Dog's feat. Sales did well, and in 1916 the company moved its operations from Detroit to a larger factory in Cleveland and renamed its cars Abbotts. As with many auto manufacturers of the time, this proved to be the company's undoing. Overextended, the company was bankrupt by 1918.

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