Tom Swift and His Motor Boat

Tom Swift and His Motor Boat, or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa, is Volume 2 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.

Tom Swift and His Motor Boat
AuthorVictor Appleton
Original titleTom Swift and His Motor Boat, or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesTom Swift
GenreYoung adult novel Adventure novel
PublisherGrosset & Dunlap
Publication date
1910
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages200+ pp
Preceded byTom Swift and His Motor Cycle 
Followed byTom Swift and His Airship 
TextTom Swift and His Motor Boat at Wikisource

Plot summary

Tom Swift's father, a world-famous scientist, has been robbed of one of his greatest inventions, and it's up to Tom to bring the criminals to justice without getting himself killed in the process. Unfortunately, Tom himself quickly becomes a target of the rogues' anger when he unknowingly buys a boat in which they had hidden a stolen diamond. Tom must use every bit of his wit to keep himself ahead of the gang of hardened felons.

Inventions and innovation

  • Tom purchased a used two-cylinder "family cruiser" lake boat at auction with the intention of customizing it. The model he purchased would have been from between the years 1900 and 1910 and was twenty-one feet in length. Among his modifications were: ignition system, water pump, oil system, spark plugs, and fuel tank. In the end, the cruiser's two-stroke engine was able to outpace the three-cylinder engine of his nemesis, Andy Foger.
  • Barton Smith, Tom's father, was perfecting his latest invention: an electric gyroscope to be used in airplanes.


gollark: Only ironically, such that I was not wrong while doing so.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: Just because its evidentiality wasn't evident to you doesn't mean it was unevident.
gollark: That was a helpful diagram! Why did you delete it?
gollark: Again, evidence?
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