Re: Elto ID
Ok what you have there is a 12 hp all right, and a 1957, but is a Buccaneer. IT was made by the Gale Division of OMC. It was a private brand outboard sold to boaters on a budget. Gale built a series of 3, 5 and 12 hp generic motors. Buccaneer was actually the new lines name, dubuted in 1950, but over the years the name changed to GALE and BUCCANEER became a model designation.
It is not an ELTO, which has in interesting story of its own. ELTO was formed by Ole Evinrude, the founder of Evinrude. He sold Evinrude in 1913 when his wife became sick. He had a 5 year non-compete cause, which prevented him from making outboards for a while. But in 1919, his wife was better, the clause had ended and old Ole re entered the outboard business, forming ELTO (Evinrudes Light Twin Outboard). ELTO eventually merged with Evinrude and and Lockwood in 1929, the new corporation became Outboard Motors Corporation, or OMC. By 1940, Elto took a backseat to Evinrude as the economy line. OMC got renamed Outboard Marine and Manufacturing in 1936 when Johnson was aquired. The story goes on and on, but eventually at the end of the 1960s ELTO faded away.
