Abstract: Marine propulsion equipment for installation in a ship or boat comprises a screw propeller with variable-pitch blades, mounted on one end of a propeller shaft whose other end is coupled to the output flange of a reversible speed-reduction gearbox. A pitch control rod is connected at one end through a linkage to the blades and extends within an axial bore in the shaft, the rod being longitudinally movable by a hydraulic actuator between predetermined limiting positions corresponding respectively to a coarse-pitch setting and a fine-pitch setting of the screw blades. The actuator is of piston-and-cylinder type interposed between the output shaft of the gearbox and the adjacent end of the propeller shaft as a part of the drive train. The actuator cylinder is formed either in a half-coupling which connects the shaft to the gearbox output flange, or in a separate tubular capsule which is itself connected between the half-coupling and the gearbox output flange.