H.King Aeromarine Origins (Putnam)

The first powered marine flying machine (and incidentally the first full-size aircraft to have a petrol engine) to be brought to the point of testing was Wilhelm Kress' flying boat (Chanute's term). It had two aluminium floats or hulls to which three wings were attached in tandem.
   Alas for the persevering Kress, who had been experimenting with aerial devices since 1877 and had waited something like two years to test his flying boat, as the craft was beginning to lift from the water on a trial during 1901 he saw an obstruction ahead. He slackened speed and attempted to turn; but the machine capsized.
   Still he worked on, and in a letter from Vienna, dated March 13, 1903, we find Chanute advising Wilbur Wright:
   'Today I spent with Wm. Kress, who experimented with a flying boat last year. You may remember that pictures of it were published at the time, and that it came to grief; turned over and sunk [sic] upon the first trial. It has since been rebuilt.... It seems to me to possess some excellent points in construction, and that it may actually fly if a motor lighter than the present one can be obtained. The latter is a Daimler weighing some 30 lbs. per H.P... .'
   Poor Kress....