Tom Swift #2: Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat: The Rivals of Lake Carlopa

Tom Swift Sr. #2

by Victor Appleton

In the second of Victor Appleton's original Tom Swift novels, Tom overhauls a speedboat and once again faces the Happy Harry gang in a tale of theft and adventure.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, Mystery, Classics, Juvenile, Childrens

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1910

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

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book two of the original Tom Swift series (1910-1941), Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat picks up shortly after the events of Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle. When a damaged motor-boat goes on sale at public auction, Tom wants to win it so he can refurbish the boat for his own use. His father, Barton, counsels Tom not to bid more than two hundred dollars, and Tom is relieved to win for exactly that amount, narrowly outbidding his adolescent rival Andy Foger and a suspicious-looking man. Tom dubs his fixer-upper the Arrow. All goes well until Tom catches the strange man from the auction fiddling with the Arrow; later, Andy makes a few ham-fisted attempts at revenge because he lost the auction. Tom will have to keep a sharp eye on his boat, but once he gets it fixed and can move freely on massive Lake Carlopa, all the headaches will be worth it.

Tom worries about his father after the stress of the Happy Harry gang stealing his inventions in the previous book. Barton could use a vacation, and Tom suggests the two of them and Tom's chum, Ned Newton, cruise down Lake Carlopa in the Arrow to Sandport. Tom and Ned can camp out for a few weeks while Mr. Swift stays at a nice hotel. The specter of the Happy Harry gang looms, however, when Tom again catches a stranger tinkering with the Arrow. He inspects the boat for damage but finds nothing wrong. Why are people intent on poking around in the vehicle's engine? Tom, his father, and Ned settle in at Sandport, but Tom returns home in his boat when he hears that all may not be well at the Swift house. He doubts that Happy Harry or Anson Morse would target Barton's inventions again, but Tom wants to set his father's mind at ease so he can enjoy himself.

From this point, the Swifts fall victim to a string of thefts. The Arrow is stolen, and Tom can't feasibly search every inlet of Lake Carlopa for it. The Happy Harry gang may be the guilty party, but is Andy Foger just as likely a culprit? He was outraged when Tom won the Arrow at auction, and swiping the boat would be in line with his brand of pettiness even after his father purchased him a new boat of his own. Tom has to be cautious not to jump to conclusions. When he finally returns to Sandport, the Swift family's domestic staff calls to say there's been a break-in, and several of Barton's unpatented inventions are missing. Vacation hasn't been as soothing as Tom hoped, but if he tracks down the thief, maybe he can retrieve his father's inventions and learn why someone would want the Arrow badly enough to steal it. Tom's boat may contain more value than he realizes...

Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle was an awkward read, and Tom came off as far less intelligent than his reputation indicates. The story also relied heavily on coincidence. Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat depends on coincidence a lot as well, but the writing flows better and the action is exciting. The book improves on its predecessor in most every way, and there's even a hint of future romance as Tom becomes comfortable with Mary Nestor, the girl he's taken a shine to. Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat transitions smoothly into the next episode, Tom Swift and His Air Ship, and I look forward to more adventures as the young inventor stretches the limits of his brilliant mind. Whatever era he's in, Tom Swift is someone to be reckoned with.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in the original Tom Swift series. It was produced by the Stratemeyer syndicate, written by Howard Garis from an outline by Edward Stratemeyer, and was published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1910 under the house name Victor Appleton. They produced five books per year in the series for each of the first three years, so there was much closer continuity in them than in the latter books; the volumes after number fifteen appeared annually through 1935. Tom is much more dependent on his father early in the series; even though he has his own money, he seeks his father's permission to spend any of it, and Barton sets a two-hundred-dollar limit on what Tom can spend at an auction of a speed boat. Tom is also much more of a mechanic or engineer than inventor in the first few books. He has run-ins with his nemesis Andy Foger again, but never files police reports for some reason despite violence and vandalism galore. The real baddies are once again the Happy Harry Gang, who once more steal things from the Swifts that have to be recovered. There's quite a bit of set-up for the third book, in which Tom will fly an airship. Tom takes his pal Ned and his father on a nice tour of Lake Carlopa in his new boat, which he's fixed up and improved. He also encounters Mary Nestor again several times, and his boating lessons allow her to win a race. Mr. Damon, who wanders about blessing random things, is also in and out of the story, and he encounters Eradicate Sampson and his pet mule, Boomerang, a couple of times as well, an unfortunate racist caricature of the time. It's not a bad story, but not quite as interesting or as exciting as the post-World War volumes in my opinion.

[Jon E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the chapter "The Balloon on Fire". I thought it was pretty exciting!

[WhatShouldIRead · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with the previous Tom Swift book I read, this one did not age well for reasons I won't go into here. Also, as with the previous book, Tom is on a quest but always, always stops to fix something along the way and gives the reader a blow by blow description of what he's doing (don't care, Tom!). The 'adventure' really wasn't all that exciting, it just read as a kind of day in the life of type story though there was a robbery. Some of the characters are introduced again and I suspect they will also appear in the next story.

Believe me when I say that if I was able to stop reading this one book I would have but it was available I had nothing else handy to read.

Morbid curiosity makes me say that I'll most likely read the next in the series. After all I downloaded the complete 18 (or is it 25?) books of this series from Gutenberg so why not.

[Heidi G · Rating 5 out of 5]

First-rate as always!

[Keller Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun entertaining read. Good storytelling and kept me interested till the end.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book of the series - actually the first three books could be considered one long tale, as the villians - the Happy Harry Gang - are present in each. In this volume, Tom buys and improves a damaged motor boat, outbidding his arch-rival Andy Foger. For some reason one of the Happy Harry gang keeps trying to get into the forward compartment of the boat and steals the wooden braces that hold the fuel tank. The same cast of characters return; Tom's chum Ned Newton is given a bit more to do this time, and Mary Nestor also appears more often, making a greater impression on Tom. Rad Sampson isn't in as many scenes, but he does save Tom from injury by warning Tom that Andy Foger has dragged a tree trunk across the road at the bottome of a hill, thinking to upset Tom on his motorcycle. Andy buys a racing boat and challenges Tom to a race, but Andy can't operate motors as well as Tom (in 1910 they needed frequent attention) so Tom wins against the more powerful racing craft.
The Happy Harry gang again steal items from Tom's father's workshops, and Tom's boat as well, but circumstances make Andy loan Tom the racing craft so Tom can find his missing motor boat. Bless my collar-button, but Mr. Damon makes an appearance, blessing everything about his person, and bless my liver, but he helps Tom track down his stolen boat.
Near the end of the story Tom saves a balloonist whose hot-air balloon has caught fire. The man, Mr. Sharp, hits Lake Carlopa and Tom swoops him up in the boat before the flaming balloon can fall in top of him. This meeting leads to the next book in the series as Mr. Sharp has half an idea for an airship that combines an airplane with a small dirigible, and needs a bright young inventor's help to work it out...
As before, Mr. Swift's stolen property is recovered, but the gang escapes to come back another day (well, the next book, obviously).
Finally, there is a big official boat race, in which Mary Nestor - after being coached by Tom - wins in the small boat class, and Tom, running against Andy and others, wins in the medium-sized boat class.
A ripping tale that all wide-awake boys and girls would enjoy! ;)

[Randy Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the second of the series, (after “Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle”) and is subtitled: “Or the Rivals of Lake Carlopa.” Lake Carlopa is the presumedly fictional like on which Tom Swift lives and most of the adventures in this book take place. And there's a lot of a adventures—no outing is with without incident. One of the most alarming jaunts is when Tom comes upon an older friend who accidentally shot himself while out hunting. There are a lot of secondary characters—the funniest is old Mr. Damon, who speaks with expression like “Bless my shirt studs.” Probably the strangest is a hot-air balloon pilot who Tom and his father just barely save from a truly harrowing incident that goes on for pages. The man almost immediately becomes part of the family, so it's easy to speculate he might be involved in the next book in the series, “Tom Swift and His Airship.” In spite of all that action and eccentricity, there is still time for some practical, even educational passages, as Tom constantly tinkers with the mechanics of the boat and the engine. I'm assuming the author knew what he was talking about, and enjoyed infusing the story with some nuts and bolts. And there's even a few meals (often my favorite parts of series books). After one lunch, Tom lingers on for “a second apple dumpling with hard sauce on”—after which he's taken with a “very comfortable feeling” and even a sense of forgiveness toward his nemesis, the bully, Andy Foger. At least until he discovers that his boat is stolen!

[Kane Keene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love buying and reading these types of books.
Boats, yachts, historical events and books about the sea are generally excellent. If there are sequels in your series, I would love to read them.

The beauties of owning the books of important authors cannot be discussed. I'm looking forward to your new books.

For friends who want to read this book, I leave the importance of reading a book here. I wish good luck to the sellers and customers...

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[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

After spending lots of time reading boy books written in the mid to late 1800s, I've finally continued my time travel experience to the early 1900s. The Tom Swift series is one of the earliest books in the Stratemeyer Syndicate (think The Bobbsey Twins Series, Hardy Boys Complete Series Set Books 1-66, and Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew. I grew up reading Nancy Drew and I knew that the books I read were re-written in the 1970s. At one point, I read some of the original Nancy Drew books. I knew about the Stratemeyer Syndicate but had never heard of the Tom Swift books until recently. Unlike the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Tom Swift is not a detective. He is a teen inventor. He's the son of Barton Swift, who is also an inventor.

This is the second in the series. The book begins with Tom hoping to purchase a boat at an auction. Bully Andy Foger also wants the boat and threatens Tom with all kinds of calamity if Tom outbids him. Tom has the winning bid and proceeds to use his inventing skills to improve the boat into the fastest boat in town. In addition to battles with Andy, who is seeking revenge, the Happy Harpy gang is back and steals the boat.

As in the first book, Mr. Damon, figures prominently as a supporting character. Mr. Damon is a real character - every sentence is laced with "Bless my... shoelaces, kidney, etc."

Some reader will have trouble reading about supporting character Eradicate Samson, the "colored" helper, so named (by himself) because he eradicates dirt. All I can say is times were different. What we recognize as racist today was just the way writers wrote African American characters.

Tom was likely modeled off Horatio Alger Jr.'s boy characters. Tom is honest, loyal, and courageous. He gets into frequent spats with the town bully, Andy Foger. Andy is mean and treacherous and lies and steals. Tom never starts a battle but is always very quick to defend himself and always comes out the victor.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

#2 in the Tom Swift series. This 1910 series entry by Victor Appleton (a collective pseudonym) is a formulaic period piece. I remember reading that Mary Roberts Rinehart is credited with inventing the "had I but known" school of foreshadowing with The Circular Staircase (1908). It didn't take long for Victor Appleton to adopt the style and festoon the Tom Swift adventures in 1910 with encounters that "had he but known". A pleasureable read of a juvenile adventure replete with races, chases and a budding romance. Dialogue and prices of the period add an unintended humerous touch.

This book picks up directly following events from the previous book with the titular Motor-Boat having been damaged by criminals intent on stealing an invention of Tom Swift's father. The owner of the boat decides to auction off the 21 foot craft rather than pay for repairs and Tom wins the auction with a bid of $200. Tom fixes the boat and the readers are included in on the repairs. Last book pitted Tom against some industrial crooks but this time Tom has to deal with the red headed bully from the first book, Andy Foger and his friend Sam Snedecker. We also get the return of Wakefield Damon, a silly character from the previous book whose accident with a motor-bike allowed Tom to get the motor-boat. In fact most of the characters from the previous book appear. Tom Swift is the classic hero so good hearted that he is often stupid in his actions. Andy Foger is the typical thick headed red haired bully but his attempts at revenge on Tom for winning the auction could easily be lethal and yet Swift insists on handling it himself even when his dad suggests going to Foger's father. We eventually do discover some actual villains who just happen to be the crooks from the previous book. The criminals appeared to be patent thieves but now appear to have a broad range of crimes. They also continue to steal secrets from the Swifts but at this point it seems as if they were doing it out of habit.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second in the original Tom Swift series and once again Tom is portrayed as an ace mechanic rather than as an inventor. In this case, he acquires a motorboat that is beset with mechanical problems. It is his father Barton Swift that is the inventor and as was the case in the first book, a gang of thieves is after the elder Swift’s inventions. They are clever and resourceful in their methods, and it is up to Tom to foil their efforts.
Eradicate and his mule once again play a supporting role, and there is the glimmering of a relationship between Tom and Miss Nestor. The action between Tom and the villains is rather low key and they are largely recycled from the first book in the series. The dialogue is very much that of youth adventures shortly after the turn of the century. In that respect, this is a historical retrospective of YA literature of the time. It is also a look into the genesis of the Tom Swift character and how he evolved, both in the original series and then into the character of Tom Swift Junior.
Since Tom is depicted as a mechanic rather than an inventor, this is not a science fiction book. Even the inventions of Barton Swift are not explained in any detail, so science is not really a part of the plot.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

A hundred old boys series book that read like a hundred year old boys series book. In the near future, these volumes will start to brim with adventure and invention. Early on in the series they are the very dated adventures of a boy mechanic tinkering with the motors of his motorcycle and motorboat and too often talking to himself.
The adventure portions come from mixing it up with a bully and a gang of criminals along with racing his new boat. These bits sound better in summery than in the book which is still close to the early Stratemeyer 'boys own adventures'. Still worth reading for those who want to see the series grow into the solidly fun series that rivaled the Hardy Boys.
Do remember that these initial books came out in 1910 while the starter books for the Hardy Boys were released in 1927. Those years made a lot of difference in boys fiction with 1910 sitting on the edge of the now-unreadable 'school chum books' of the first decade of the 1900s and the adventures of the many teen detectives that were soon to fill the first half century.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Golly gosh, Beav, what a big adventure for such a small boat! Minor dustups, a theft of his new used boat, lots of technical information about "gasolene" engines*, sexism**, the seemingly standard racism of the stereotype character Eradicate Sampson... and Tom exhibited some immaturity with his jumping to a severe accusation of his rival. *Insight into how the early engines had to be tweaked almost constantly while running - challenging to pilot the boat AND make on the spot adjustments to fuel feed, carburation, or ignition timing.

I read #1 two years ago via Project Gutenberg, and my note says I had 13 of the 40 books. I now have 37 (including the first). I'm bouncing between different juvenile series I've collected and only just got back to the original Tom Swift. Certainly not the instantaneous physics-defying inventions of Jr. (yet?), and a lot more polite - the language is fun to read. And the **sexism? "But we'll go over and see if we can help. Perhaps she doesn't understand it. Girls don't know much about machinery."

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Swift and his motor boat is the second in the original series dating back to 1910. The book is fun, although one has to get past the odd writing style of the author. The characters are two-dimensional, at least by current standards, and the mechanisms described can best be described as 'quaint'. Still, it's fun to look at technology as it existed over 110 years ago. In spite of all its quirks, I give this one a C+.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very simple. Very linear. Great for young adult. Good easy read. Things all happen to work out: our hero, Tom Swift, can do no wrong. Lots of excitement, but no depth to it.

Would be 5 stars for 10 year old me.
Probably 2 stars for 30 year old me.

[Steven Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

7 out of 10

[Chris Potgieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The same bad guys fro: the firdt book tried to kill Tom Swift but he managed to put it them in prison at last. I loved when they rescued the balloonist - he is now helping them build an airship.

[GothChickVibing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Total boys book

[Steve Rutherford]

Applewood reprint

[Steve Thomas]

Tom continues to show his brilliance

In this story, Tom Swift comes to own a nice motor boat. It, of course, leads to multiple perils and adventures. I enjoyed this book.

[Barrylee Elder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the first. By a whole star.

[Dkolacinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 2 of the original Tom Swift series moves from motorcycles to motorboats. OK but nothing groundbreaking.








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[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of the boys' adventure books from the early 20th Century I love so much. Young Tom acquires the motor-boat seen towards the end of the previous volume, repairs and improves it, and has a series of adventures on the local (very large) lake.

It illustrates how much the technology of gasoline motors has advanced in the intervening century--Tom and the other motorboat pilots must frequently tinker with the engines mid-race to get the best performance or prevent breakdowns.

The last quarter of the book sets up the airship that will be the focus of the next volume.

The character of Eradicate may come off as offensively stereotyped, and Tom shows some mild sexism when it comes to girls and motors. (The romantic interest gets better at it, but only because of his tutoring.) And towards the end, one character suddenly reveals he has more political power than he'd let on, with no foreshadowing.

But these are minor quibbles, and I think this book would be fine to share with a son, grandson or nephew.

For more adventure reviews, see http://www.skjam.com/tag/adventure/

[Rich Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've read the more recent Tom Swift book series, you'll probably find the originals kind of boring - and to be honest, they are. But they were written at the turn of the 20th century, so that might be expected. These predate Edgar Rice Burroughs' adventure tales by half a decade. This is more of the Rover Boys, the Chums of Scranton High, and Frank Merriwell vein.

This Tom Swift is more of a mechanic than a true inventor - at least at this point in his literary career - and is more concerned with mundane matters like helping his dad, or running a boat on the lake, or the like. The stories do have a certain quaint charm to them. This one has Tom squabbling with one of his teen-aged rivals and the thieves who tried to steal his father's patents in the first book. Everything's very polite and orderly, in a Waltons kind of way.

Not a bad book, not a completely dull one, either. It's definitely a look back on a forgotten era.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Downloaded for free at Gutenberg, and formatted for my smartphone using the free software Calibre. This made an extremely nice ebook for me, with cover art and chapters. I'll certainly do this again more often!

This book was not nearly as good as the original. Way too formulaic, and the mystery was so obviously easy to solve even while the basic plot was being set up.

However, if I were a young boy in 1911 when this was published, I would have loved it.

Even though this book seems to find the series in a bad spot (early on, as it's only book #2) and even though the series itself has already started to be a cliche of itself (self-referencing and predictable), it was still a fast, fun read.

I'll download a few more from Gutenberg and read them on my Palm phone when I've got a few minutes to spare.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book that is 106 years old, it holds up surprisingly well. I read this to my youngest as a bedtime story by chapters and it works very well like that.

This is the second book in the original series and it is appealing enough to want to track down the first and then the rest of the series. I guess I have another reason to haunt my local used bookstores.

One warning though, there is a character called Eradicate that is, unfortunately, written the way many minority characters were handled back then. Even so, 'Rad, as he was called by Tom, was an important part of the story and even prevented Tom from being seriously hurt at one point early in the book.

Buy it! Read it!

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been downloading the public domain, free Kindle editions of the Tom Swift books to reread what I found in my elementary school library. This one continues the series with Tom getting a boat and preparing to race it on Lake Carlopa against his boyhood frenemies. Readers can enjoy meeting the characters from the first book and reading about inventive work on a motor-boat instead of a motor-cycle. I started this Kindle book, had to put it down for awhile due to certain circumstances, and finished it later.

[Mike Vendetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Tom Swift and his Motorboat, is a lot like riding a moped. It's fun,but no real bragging rights. The Tom Swift series is well written, and each chapter is a cliffhanger. It's a genuine feel-good book that requires little thought, that takes you back to a kinder and gentler time. I am narrating this as I read it or upload to audible.com. Here is a link to chapter 2 on YouTube http://youtu.be/4PNAhXY_YA0

[Jeff Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book in the Tom Swift stories. This is a young adult from approx. 100 years ago. It is obviously easy reading but it paints a very interesting picture about life in a bygone era. Provides for a very pleasurable experience if you are a history buff like me.