The beginnings of the company began with none other than William Sherwood, the company's namesake. He and a friend, David Buick, partnered in a plumbing business. Mr. Buick went the automobile route and became part of General Motors and Mr. Sherwood chose to focus on foundry and machining which caught the attention of Henry Ford among others and helped expand the automotive industry in Detroit.

Another entrepreneur, Chris Smith, combined Sherwood's expertise of plumbing and custom manufacturing and developed the first seawater pumps for marine inboard engines. The company, named Chris-Craft, essentially created the leisure boating industry in the 1920s. The leisure boating market grew so strongly that by 1927 Chris-Craft was the world’s largest manufacturer of mahogany boats. You can read more about the history of Chris-Crafts here.

Like many other marine engine parts manufacturers, Sherwood became a major supplier for the U.S. Navy during WWII. Continuing their shared history, a Chris-Craft built personnel carrier with a Sherwood raw water pump was the first allied landing craft to hit Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.

As the pleasure boating industry grew after the war, Sherwood began to accommodate precise engine cooling needs. The raw water pump is used whether it’s a seawater-cooled engine or freshwater-cooled engine or close-cooled engine (aka heat exchanger cooled).

Sherwood also kept pace with the new engines from Chrysler, Ford, and GM by expanding its relationship with Chris-Craft and developing relationships with Chrysler Marine, Crusader, and OMC.

In fact, the Sherwood E35 raw water pump was used at Crusader from the 70s through 1992. It was the only pump they used and it was used on every engine they built.

The Sherwood G21 raw water pump is unique to the Pleasurecraft (PCM) engine used specifically for the 302/351 Ford engines, which have been in use for decades.

Over the years, Sherwood Pumps have developed a reputation for excellence in quality and represent one of our top-selling brands. Today, as part of Pentair, the Sherwood brand has become the raw water pump of choice for many of the most prestigious engine manufacturers around the world.