Tom Swift And His Undersea Search

Tom Swift Sr. #23

by Victor Appleton

American boys' fiction under pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate who produced Tom Swift series, Nancy Drew mysteries, the Hardy Boys, Dave Fearless and many others.

Genres: Science Fiction, Adventure, Childrens

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

Victor Appleton was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its successors, most famous for being associated with the Tom Swift series of books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...

The character of Tom Swift was conceived in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging company. Stratemeyer invented the series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventure. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift books by first preparing an outline with all the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published under the house name of Victor Appleton. Edward Stratemeyer and Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes in the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, wrote the last three volumes. The first Tom Swift series ended in 1941.
In 1954, Harriet Adams created the Tom Swift, Jr., series, which was published under the name "Victor Appleton II". Most titles were outlined and plotted by Adams. The texts were written by various writers, among them William Dougherty, John Almquist, Richard Sklar, James Duncan Lawrence, Tom Mulvey and Richard McKenna. The Tom Swift, Jr., series ended in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift

Reviews

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite of the series, even though there were no new inventions in this book. I liked that he made mistakes--some incorrect math calculations and not taking the gyroscope his father recommended--it showed he wasn't perfect. Not everything made sense, particularly how his enemies could suddenly the location of the missing ship when before they could not.

The description of the sea creatures were interesting. Some were way off and made them more into sea monsters of old sea men tales and others were fairly accurate, even by today's standards. It had an interesting mix of knowledge that is still accurate today and some sensationalism.

It was fun to read.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

In every Tom Swift book, there is an adversary. In the first books, it was Happy Harry and his gang of criminals. In some books, Shopton resident Andy Foger and his friends were the thorn in Tom’s side, or it was Andy and his father. When on Earthquake Island, Tom and his fellow castaways were threatened by Mother Nature. When Among the Diamond Makers, Tom and friends had to be concerned about both Mother Nature and a bunch of criminals. In other books, a rival company was unfair competition. The Universal Flying Machine Company of New York is just one example. In Tom Swift and His Undersea Search, the adversary was actually part of Tom Swift’s team!

In this book, Tom’s friend, Wakefield Damon, introduced Tom to Dixwell Hardley who wanted Tom to help him recover gold from a shipwreck. Hardley was a passenger on the ship called Pandora when it went down near the West Indies. He overheard a crew member tell the captain the exact longitude and latitude of the ship when it began to sink. Hardley survived the experience in a lifeboat. The captain and crew member, in a different lifeboat, did not. So, Hardley was sure that only he knew the Pandora’s location. Because the ship was transporting the gold to finance a South American revolution, he was equally sure that no one else would attempt a recovery. None of this convinced Tom Swift to work with Hardley. Not until Mr. Damon told Tom that he had invested heavily in this project did Tom reluctantly become partners with Mr. Hardley in the salvage operation. Tom didn’t want Mr. Damon to lose his money.

Tom’s submarine, the Advance, developed in an earlier book, was reactivated, improved, and renamed the M.N. 1 in honor of Mary Nestor. Tom, Dixwell Hardley, Ned Newton, Mr. Damon, the giant Koku, as well as a number of Swift employees prepared to embark on an undersea trip.

Just before the launch, Tom visited his girlfriend and fiancee, Mary Nestor, to say goodbye. He learned that her Uncle Barton Keith had been swindled by a man in an oil well enterprise. When Tom described his upcoming voyage and said the name Dixwell Hardley, Mary realized that he had the same name as the man who cheated her uncle. After some due diligence, it was determined that Hardley was the man in each situation. Tom was about to “set sail” with a dubious character. The fox was in the hen house! Or more literally, the adversary would be in the submarine.

Once again, Ned Newton has a new job. Apparently, he left the Shopton Bank again and once again works for his friend Tom. Ned is the financial manager of the newly organized Swift Construction Company. None of these jobs must offer a pension plan because he doesn’t seem to have any incentive to stay with one employer.

The Tom Swift books can be categorized as science fiction. Each is a fictional story involving science and technology. Generally, they don’t stray too far from what is possible, especially what is possible during the years in which the books were written. In this book, no one is beamed down to a planet and back up to a spaceship, but the diving suits and other technology seem a little more farfetched compared to what is in the previous books. I have always liked that Tom Swift seemed to be a guy who could exist and really do what he does in the books.

In 2014, an Egyptian man using scuba gear dove to a depth of 1,000 feet in the Red Sea. So, having Tom Swift and others be in diving suits at a depth of 700 feet looks reasonable by comparison. Still, the reader is told that Tom and friends use ropes and ladders to climb onto various shipwrecks and walk on the decks. I would think that you just float around the ship and access areas on it and in it without ropes or ladders.

Tom Swift and His Undersea Search is okay. It is not one of the worst of the Tom Swift books, but not one of the best ones either. If you wish to learn if Tom gets the gold or if Mary’s uncle regains or loses his oil well investment, you will have to read the book.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1920, this Tom Swift adventure takes place after the end of the Great War, which is mentioned several times. Like all the novels in the original Tom Swift series, there are some racist overtones, but in this one they are toned down to the simple-minded, yet loyal and hard-working format. All the standard characters are present, yet Tom’s father is depicted as having aged a bit from earlier stories.
This story features one of Tom’s earlier inventions, his powerful and efficient submarine. When his friend Mr. Damon encounters a man named Hardley, he is told about the known location of a gold treasure that was sunk in the Atlantic. Hardley was on the ship carrying a large amount of gold and he overheard the captain being told their precise location before the ship sank. Hardley managed to survive the sinking, but the crew did not. He has convinced Mr. Damon to invest in a quest to recover the gold and Damon then convinces Tom to come to his aid.
The adventure takes place under the ocean surface as Tom and his crew battle sea creatures, mechanical problems and the difficulties of finding a ship on the ocean floor in very deep water. The action is routine for an original Tom Swift story in the sense that experienced readers will not be surprised at the problems that Tom and his crew must face.
In many ways, the changes in the adventure stories written for early teen readers over the last century are a description of how the world has changed. Not only the literary context provided, but in the action and dialog. Read it with that in mind and you will enjoy this story.

[Rex Libris · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this installment Our Hero Tom is hired by an individual to find a ship full of gold lost on the ocean floor. As the story progrsses, we learn this ne'er-do-well has cheated Tom's True Love's uncle out of a share in an oil field. The ne'er-do-well breaks his deal with Tom and tries to go out on his own. However, tom finds the ship first and finds out the gold cargo was actually a scam. The top of the box had gold, all the rest was just iron. However, Tom also finds the documents that prove Mary's uncle is the owner of the poil fields and he is restored to his fortune.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes it is fun to go back and read old science fiction books. This one was actually written during the pulp era. Dated but still good fun.

[David Hibberd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the Tom Swift Sr. books as a child and again when I got my Kindle in 2010. They are an easy read and enjoyable. It is interesting to see how writing has changed since these books were written.

[Tiffany Tinkham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good old classic young readers book about a young inventor that invents this awesome inventions and then goes on these wild and crazy adventures, sometimes getting into trouble in the process.