Motorboat

“ Any one who goes much upon the water in motorboats learns the value of a good pole, especially when the cruise leads through swampy sections, where it is no uncommon thing to be mired and need other help than that afforded by the unreliable engine.
The current began to make itself felt almost immediately they were off. It was Jack’s intention to keep on using his pole until he could no longer touch bottom. When that time arrived they would have to let the boat drift with the current, under the belief that it was apt to stay fairly well out in the river. ”

“ Elated with our capture of the car we scented greater victories. We heard of a motor-boat on the river near Missy, and were filled with visions of an armoured motor-boat, stuffed with machine-guns, plying up and down the Aisne. Huggie and another made the excursion. The boat was in an exposed and altogether unhealthy position, but they examined it, and found that there was no starting-handle. In the village forge, which was very completely fitted up, they made one that did not fit, and then another, but however much they coaxed, the engine would not start. So regretfully they left it. ”

“ Stephen has just completed his first Hydro-Aircraft, and while I am in San Diego I shall test it and make a long trip over the Pacific Ocean to exploit its powers. Such a machine would not take the place of a yacht, you know, and the motor boat attachment is merely a safety device to allow one to fly over water as well as over land. Then, if you are obliged to descend, your aircraft becomes a motor boat and the engines propel it to the shore. ”

“ They went out on the public dock in the Argono River. At the string piece was tied what the girls saw was one of the neatest motor boats that, as Will said afterward, “ever ate a gasoline sandwich.”
There was a trunk cabin, an ample cockpit at the stern, a little cooking galley, a powerful motor, complete fittings and everything that the most exacting motor boat enthusiast could desire.
“There she is!” cried Mr. Marlin. “There’s the surprise, Bet. I got her for you! I named her the Gem—for she is a gem. ”

“ Look!” cried Betty, as she released the throttle control that connected the gasoline supply with the motor. At once, as when the accelerator pedal of an auto is pressed, the engine hummed and throbbed, and a mass of foam appeared at the stern to show the presence of the whirling propeller.
“That’s fine!” cried Grace, as Betty slowed down once more.
“I thought we’d take it easy,” the Little Captain went on, “as we don’t want to finish our cruise in one day, or even two. If I drove the Gem to the limit, we’d be in Rainbow Lake, and out of it, in too short a time. ”

“ The beauty of a gasoline motor engine is that when all is running smoothly and no signals from the bridge are to be expected, the engineer may spend much of his time up on deck. On the bridge deck, near the wheel, are “controls” by means of which the helmsman can change the speeds, stop or reverse at will.
As Captain Tom headed in the direction ordered he heard Jed reporting to the owner that the long racing boat astern did not appear to be making any efforts to overtake the “Rocket” or to reach the “Kaiser Wilhelm.” Instead, the racing boat seemed to be playing wholly a waiting game. ”

“ The sound of puffing was borne to them on the wind which was blowing up stream.
“It’s a motor boat!” exclaimed Jerry.
“Or an automobile,” said Bob.
[128]
“Automobiles don’t run along the river,” said Jerry. “There’s no good road within a mile of the stream, Mr. Johnson said. It’s a motor boat.”
“But it’s coming up stream,” said Bob. “It can’t be our boat.”
“Unless it went down past us in the night,” remarked Ned. “But we’ll soon see.”
Nearer and nearer sounded the puffing of the engine. There was no doubt that it was a motor boat and that it was coming up stream rapidly. ”

“ There is, in fact, always enough to be done aboard a good-sized motor cruiser when the crew have her in at her berth. There is the engine to be gone over, deck and steering tackle to be inspected and perhaps repaired, the searchlight and signal lanterns to be taken care of, and a hundred other routine duties. The steward has his hands full of “housekeeping” affairs.
“I don’t see that speed boat in anywhere,” commented Jed, looking over the harbor. ”

“ After all, on a river one does not want to travel fast—rather to avoid the hard labour which rowing undoubtedly does become with a craft roomy enough to be comfortable for a party.
The marine motor also scores under the heading of adaptability. A wagonette could not be converted into a motor-car with any success. But a good-sized row-boat may easily blossom out as a useful self-propelled boat. You may buy complete apparatus—motor, tanks, screw, batteries, etc.—for clamping direct on to the stern, and there you are—a motor boat while you wait! ”

“ The chugging of many motors—the churning to foam of the blue waters of the lake—a haze of acrid smoke hanging over all, as some cylinder did not properly digest the gasoline vapor and oil fed to it, but sent it out half consumed—spray thrown up now and then—the distant sound of a band—eager eyes looking toward the stake buoys—tense breathing—all this went to make up the race in which our outdoor girls were taking part.
Foot by foot the Gem crept up on the Bug, which was the name of the foremost boat. Drop by drop Betty fed more gasoline to her striving motor. ”

“ All these boats should have a motor-engine in them. And, of course, the glorified tradesman, the mummified official, the technicians, and all these secretly disconcerted hangers-on to the enormous ticket-selling enterprise, will raise objections to it with every air of superiority. But don’t believe them. Doesn’t it strike you as absurd that in this age of mechanical propulsion, of generated power, the boats of such ultra-modern ships are fitted with oars and sails, implements more than three thousand years old? ”

“ Again we travel the weary road in the quest after more power for storage battery and dynamo. And then, when it is finally solved, some one asks, "What if the engine breaks down?" And we collapse. There are the sidelights, the binnacle light, and the anchor light. Our very lives depend upon them. So we have to fit the boat throughout with oil lamps as well.
But we are not done with that engine yet. The engine is powerful. We are two small men and a small woman. It will break our hearts and our backs to hoist anchor by hand. Let the engine do it. ”

“ Presently they were seated in the Firefly and their youthful engineer shoved off from shore. They were drifting lazily along over a miniature ripple of waves which the movement of the boat had set in motion, when Edward l’Estrange gave an exclamation of surprise and annoyance. As he bent over the machinery, they waited for the whir of the motor, but the engine was silent and the little boat bobbed up and down like a piece of driftwood that had shifted all responsibility in life. Motor boats are much like delicate people 70 who are subject to sudden and unexpected attacks. ”

“ The motor-boats hasten out like scenting dogs. Every sort of craft—motor-boat, gig, lugger and steamboat—makes for sea, higgledy-piggledy in a long line, an irregular procession of black and blue and green and white and brown. Here, as in the men's clothes, the paint-pots have been spilled.
There is nothing more sociable than a fishing-fleet. The boats overtake each other, like horses in a race. They gallop in rivalry. But for the most part they keep together, and move like a travelling town over the sea. ”

“ The motor boat was, of course, the centre of all scheming. The idea was to sail away in it with an able-bodied company of prison camp comrades, capture a sailing ship, and go buccaneering again. One of the prisoners, a young fellow, was a motor expert. The camp commander had assigned him to look after the engine of his motor boat. So he was one man whom we would have to have with us. I didn't think there would be much trouble in getting away with the boat. Although there were sentries all over the island, we were sure we could invent some way of outwitting them. ”

“ I have not the slightest doubt but what a man with a yacht fitted with a motor capable of driving her at a speed of five miles, and using the engine only as a substitute for sail when the wind is dead or fickle, could cruise twice as far and see twice as much as one who depended solely upon canvas. This is a deal to promise, but no doubt those who have had a long experience in cruising in our Eastern waters will underwrite the opinion. ”

“ He went down to the levee to see what he could see, and there he saw a motor-boat. It was about thirty feet long, had a low cabin forward, an open cockpit aft, a dirty-white coat of paint. As he looked at it, startled by the feeling that some time he had seen that boat before, and trying to place it, he walked out on the temporary foot-bridge and looked into it.
"What! What!" he breathed as he saw the engine: "Twenty horse-power—towing bitts! Why, it's one of those West Point stock towboats! It's the dead split of the Tupelo!" ”

“ Most of to-day I spent tinkering with the engine. It goes now—in a water barrel. The trouble with the best of these little motors is that the moment they get wet they stop, and they are attached at such an exposed place, on the stern, that they will get wet if there’s much of a sea. Then you’re in a bad fix for it’s impossible to make any headway rowing with the engine—or rather the propeller—dragging. Most of the engines are hung right on the stern and can be readily detached and drawn into the boat. ”

“ The motor, one of three cylinders, was a self-starter, but by means of a crank and chain could be started from the steering platform, just aft of the trunk cabin, in case of emergency. There was a clutch, so that the motor could be set in motion without starting the boat, until the clutch, set for forward or reverse motion, had been adjusted, just as the motor of an automobile can be allowed to run without the car itself moving. ”

“ The boat’s engine is a powerful three-cylinder pump, and it sucks the water strongly in through the tubes which point forward, discharging it as powerfully out through those which point astern; thus drawing and driving the boat along at a speed of about twelve knots per hour, which is as fast, I fancy, as we shall ever want her to go. If you want to go astern the movement of a single lever reverses the whole process. ”

“ Should a car meet a hill too steep for its climbing powers, the engines must come to rest. The wheel does not slip on the road, and so long as there is sufficient power it will force the car up the severest incline; as soon as the power proves too small for the task in hand the car "lies down." In a motor boat, however, the engine may keep the screw moving without doing more against wind and tide than prevent the boat from "advancing backwards." ”

“ Oh, any old kind of an engine,—I don't care, so long as it serves its purpose of keeping a man and a boy busy all day long quarreling as they always do just how to run it. And once a 21day, every late afternoon, I shall send the wrangle boat to the mainland—way—way out beyond the sky line of my piazza. And the instant that boat swings back into vision again, just between the droop of the roof and the lift of the railing, they will hoist a flag if there is anything for me. ”

“ Nevertheless it was wildly exhilarating. The rapid pulsations of the powerful motor, the rhythmic lift of the long, lean hull to the waves, the hiss and the sting of the flying spindrift, and the unwonted sensation of speed—a sensation not experienced when flying at a height—all combined to give a new zest to life.
And to what purpose? At first sight it was a mere joy-ride, a pleasure-trip in an expensive motor-boat at the cost of the British taxpayer. ”

“ But we clip the wings of the possibilities of motors if we limit them to travels of which a home is the immediate centre. The trials organised by the Automobile Club point to the practicability of journeys for which our country is so admirably adapted. The motor-car may become a land yacht with more variety of scenery than its marine prototype, and an absence of the frequent disconcerting motion peculiar to the sea. I do not at all depreciate the pleasure of travelling over a beautiful country in a railway. ”

“ Ford turns out.”
“That will be best,” spoke Betty. “Oh, see, it is a boat on fire!”
They had reached a place where they could see a small motor boat, not far from shore, wrapped in a pall of black smoke, through which could be observed flickering flames.
“There—he’s jumped!” cried Mollie, as a figure leaped from the burning craft. “He’s safe, anyhow.”
“There go Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Stone in their boat!” exclaimed Grace, as the slender racing craft shot out from shore.
Whatever may have been the faults of the young men as motorists, they knew how to act promptly in this case. ”

“ The emergency air valves are opened, the compressed air hisses out of the tanks—the submersion valves sing in all their scales....
I stand with compressed lips, looking through the tower window over the tossing sea around me, waiting for the first sign of sinking....
But still I can see our deck, still the waves toss us up high into the air.... We have no more time to lose.
I order more play to diving rudders, and give the command, "Both engines full speed ahead!"
The whole boat trembles and sways under the increased engine power, and gives a couple of springs; she staggers and reels. ”

“ It was a little motor boat, wallowing in the rising sea, and doomed to certain destruction unless able to make shelter immediately. And with the waves dashing wildly against the rocks, those aboard would never see the small opening through which the motor boat boys had come to their present snug harbor!
“It’s the Flash!” shouted Jack; “and unless we manage to show them the way in, it’s good-bye to Clarence and Bully Joe! We must do it, fellows. Come on!” ”