Charles Albert Marshall invented between 1893-1897 the first swinging ship attraction. This attraction was known as the Ocean Wave and traveled with the Marshall Bros Circus.

Over in Germany, the swing boat was created in the early 1890s. It consisted of 4 to 6 small swing boats on a wooden frame, similar to a park swing ride. Two swingers used their strength and weight to complete higher and higher swings. As they were quite a physical experience, along with a small risk of falling off, those were phased out over the years even when steel and aluminum replaced the wooden frames.

A great example of a preserved Swing Boat, in operation at Heritage Park (Calgary, AB).

Later on, the Eyerly Aircraft Company, based in Salem, Oregon, created a line of aircraft training simulators for the airline industry that was slowly starting around the world. Those simulators were adapted as amusement park rides, beginning in 1933 with the Loop-O-Plane. That strange attraction has two passengers sitting at each end of two arms. Locked inside a cage with a tight lap bar to secure riders, the ride could continually loop riders head over heels during the cycle. This was one of the first examples of a successful looping amusement park ride, and Eyerly continued with the innovations.

El Martillo (The Hammer) was a popular name for Loop-O-Plane rides in North America. This ride operated at La Feria de Chapultepec (Mexico City, Mexico)

The Roll-O-Plane, also known as the Salt and Pepper Shakers, took riders through oscillating movements, with the cars rolling to prevent riders from going upside down. The Fly-O-Plane combined both ride movements but did not see many sales due to how complicated they were mechanically. Last, the Rock-O-Plane was a different take on the Ferris wheel, with riders sitting in locking cages and can control if their cage rolls or stays in place. As a result, riders can do loops, go with the Ferris wheel movement, or perform other unique motions.

 In the late 1970s, among the many ideas studied by Karl Bacon and Ed Morgan at Arrow Development, a revival of the Swinging Ship attraction was studied. Unfortunately, Rio Grande Industry (who owned Arrow Development then) did not see the value in designing and marketing such an attraction, so the idea remained on the shelf there. At the same time, Huss Maschinenfabrik out of West Germany, Anton Schwarzkopf of West Germany, Chance Rides from the United States, and Intamin A.G. out of Switzerland, studied the same concept. The companies premiered their version respectively in 1978 for Huss and Schwarzkopf, 1979 for Chance Rides, and 1980 for Intamin.

Huss Rides

The Huss Pirat, as it was called, was available in both transportable and permanent park versions at the time. When in full swing, the boat reached 64 feet tall (19.5 meters), with the frame 48 feet tall (15 meters). This was a high-capacity attraction, with room for nearly 54 riders on the ship in 9 rows. The boat can reach an angle of 75° when running at full power, giving riders in the end seats on both extremities an incredible feeling of weightlessness.

A Huss Pirate at La Ronde (Montreal, QC)

The Huss Pirat restraint system consisted of a hydraulic lap bar per row that rotated on its axis to restrain riders while still giving them much room to float. The ride motion is provided by one or two drive tires that raise and lower according to a program so that the boat swings higher and higher as needed. When it’s time to end the cycle and return the ship to the loading position, those same drive tires brake it.

A Huss Pirate at Lake Compounce (Bristol, CT)

In 1984 Huss Rides opened the first Super Pirate at Toshimaen in Tokyo, Japan. This was the world’s largest and tallest swinging ship ride in the world at the time of opening, and its statistics are mind-boggling. The ride’s frame was 148 feet tall (45 meters), and two 120-passenger ships hung from it. Everland, south of Seoul in South Korea, opened the second one in 1988, which is still operational.

Schwarzkopf

Schwarzkopf took a very different approach with the Shuttle-Boat. Rather than hanging a ride vehicle shaped like a boat from a frame, the ship is on a U-shaped steel track that rolls back and forth. As such, it could be seen as a very early precursor for the Zamperla Rocking Tug and DiskO that took the industry by storm in 2002 and 2003. The boat rolled on pairs of rubber tires on the track, with a long friction plate in the middle where the separate drive tires ran to produce the motion.

Schwarzkopf produced four for the European market and one for Japan, which was built by the Sansei company. One of those was at Bobbejaanland (Lichtaart, Belgium) and photos can be seen here:

Santa Maria

Chance Rides

Chance Rides produced its first Sea Dragon swinging ship in 1979. Its dimensions were similar to the Huss Pirat and offered as both a permanent attraction bolted to a concrete base and a transportable ride like that one. Two trailers were necessary to travel with that ride, and with 50 riders per cycle, it was quite a profitable attraction for fairground operators. It soon found its way into many amusement parks in the US.

The Space Shuttle was a more compact and smaller Swinging Ship that premiered in 1981. One particular structural characteristic was that instead of an A-frame like many other swinging ships, the ride used a single vertical steel structure, similar to the Ranger/Traumboot ride. The boat, which only had 6 rows, was patterned after the American Space Shuttle, and the whole ride fit on a single trailer. This feature made it more economical to travel with compared with the more enormous Sea Dragon.

Space Shuttle, photo courtesy of Chance Rides.

Later, Chance Rides came up with the Pharaoh’s Fury around the mid-1990s, making the Sea Dragon and Space Shuttle obsolete. It was similar in size to the Sea Dragon, with 10 rows on the boat, allowing four adults per row or six kids per row, depending on the desired height restriction. It was mounted on a single trailer, thus allowing the capacity of the Sea Dragon to be on a single trailer without the single heavy support column and the smaller capacity of the Space Shuttle. Its maximum operating angle when looking at the middle of the ship compared to the ground is 65°.