Terra Marina Amphibious Cruiser

The Terra Marina Amphibious Cruiser was a dual-purpose trailer and houseboat built by the Terra Marina Manufacturing Company of Houston, Texas. The company operated from 1957 until 1967, when it was wound up by court order, possibly through bankruptcy. Such combined trailer-houseboats were popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, and magazines of the time also covered rivals such as the Neptune.

History

The archive text comes from an owner's restoration diary of 2001-2002, recording the hull being sandblasted and then rewelded. The author also relates a story from an owner in Libby, Montana, who bought a brand-new, never-registered demonstrator that a former dealer had kept in her barn since the 1960s; a friend then found and restored a second one nearby. According to that dealer, the Terra Marina hull was in fact a converted Second World War amphibious ammunition trailer, the maker having bought a batch of surplus trailers. Owners reported that the boats were easy to launch and recover and handled very well.