Inter Ocean, June 23, 1912
By John P. Brady.
Speed is the watchword of the age. Automobilists are streaking over this planet taster than any human beings have traveled before. They are making better time than any animals that ever have propelled themselves in the water, on land or in the air. They have invaded the domain of Father Neptune and boats are now traveling faster than the trains of ten years ago.
With the development of the engine of the automobile it was only natural that this light means of fearful acceleration should be tried in the air and on the sea. It has made the aeroplane and the hydroplane possible and it is now a mooted question whether the latest speed boats cannot hold themselves on equal terms with the fastest craft on air or land.
Given a fine roadway and nothing to interfere, the auto can beat them all. But let the auto take the going as it finds it and the speed boat and the aeroplane will more times than not be victorious. For there are no especially prepared roadways for the air and the water craft. They travel as nature sees fit. Put the automobile up against this same kind of going and the only place It can win out is on the level sands of the Florida or Pacific coast beaches
The automoblle is at the zenith of its speed. It seems impossible to drive the craft any faster on rubber tires with anything like safety. With the speed boat it is different.
The hydroplane is only in its infancy. Five years ago they called them autoboats, because they were propelled by automobile engines and steered by wheels such as are seen in the auto of the present day.
But every year has shown great strides in the improvement of these craft. The builders of hydroplanes are not troubled with the tire question, which is the only thing that holds back the automobile from undreamed of speed, and yet the hydroplane travels on an air cushion as does the auto. It is not a flat bottomed scow, as many imagine, and very little of its skin touches the water when it in at its best speed.
There is a series of steps on the bottom of a hydroplane in which an air cushion is preserved during the high speed of the boat, and this enables it to run much more lightly than a regular displacement boat.
When the automobilists first turned their attention to the placing of high powered light engines in boats they used the old displacement craft and the Duke of Westminster’s Ursula is a good type of this class of craft, which astonished the world with its speed.
Then they tried the flat bottomed light draft craft, which would rise out of the water as it attained high speed. Then along came Fauber with his perfected hydroplane, which traveled on the automatically caused air cavities, and the success of this boat has been proved by James A. Pugh’s Disturber II. and other wonderful craft which have kept the speed boat champlonship of the world in America.
Pugh was the first yachtsman to conceive the idea of getting marine engines modeled after the auto power plants and make a tremendous advance on the power which is installed in the racing cars and aeroplanes. Last year his Disturber II won everything in the West and attained a speed of ffty miles an hour. This boat is only thirty-two feet long and has 250 horse-power.
But Pugh was not yet satisfied he had a craft as fast as he could get. And he ordered a new forty footer, with two engines of twelve cylinders each and an indicated horse-power of 550.
He had the boat built at Weckler’s yards here in Chicago and the engines built by Van Blerck in Detroit. Fauber designed the craft. and declares it is his masterpiece. The engines have been turned out with the greatest care ever given a set of Van Blercks, and Pugh believes he has a boat which will make close to sixty miles an hour
The builders guarantee the craft will make fifty-seven, and this should be fast enough to win the majority of honors at the big naval pageant to be held in Chicago next Aug. 10-17.
One of the features of this event is designed to prove whether the hydroplane is to be the boat of the future. The 120 mile race from Chicago to St. Joseph, Mich, and return will be the severest test to which boats of any kind ever have been put. The race is the longest hydroplane contest ever arranged, and as the boats will be driven at a speed of over forty mlles an hour across Lake Michigan’s rollers, a more severe test could not be asked.
If these craft, which are so light in construction that they put the birch bark canoe of the Indian to same, can come through the terrific ordeal of August, after having taken part in the racking races of the four days previous, even the most critical of boatmen must be convinced the hydroplane has come to stay.
With the Improvement in speed in the little boats that can be expected, and with the development of engines, Lake Michigan is going to dwindle in size. There are as yet no speed laws on this expanse of water, and when the hydroplane builders turn out boats that can make from sixty to 100 miles an hour the towns and summer home districts on the other side of the lake will not be so far away from Chicago that the owners cannot live there and still pay some attention to their business on this side of the lake. Commodore William Hale Thompson’s rediscovery of Lake Michigan will then be a reality With a perfect hydroplane a business man can reach St. Joseph, Mich., as quickly as he can take the train and get to Lake Forest. He can reach Michigan City in half the time, and it is much nicer traveling. And then the north shore will brought within a few minutes’ run of Chicago. It is pretty nearly certain that hydroplane is going to solve the problem of traveling on the water. Its enthusiasts declare it will be to the lake what the automobile is to the land, and so many wonders have come to pass in the last ten years in the way of fast travel that there are few who will take it upon themselves to contradict this assertion.
It apparently all depends upon the St. Joseph race. The hydroplane men declare they can make the trip inside of three hours. Of course, they do not intend to buck northern storm, but in ordinary weather, such as is usually to be found on the lake, they say they will be right at home. One of the arguments they put forward in favor of the hydroplane is the fact that, even if they are caught out in midlake by a storm, there are few gales they cannot outrun. And when they get the speed they are looking for they will be able to escape from any storm that ever can blow
The ordinary type of boat is unable to do this, as It has not the speed, and, although the barometer warns of heavy weather, it never tells from which direction it is due. A hydroplane could stick its nose right into a squall, then turn about and run away before the sea had time to get up.
- James Pugh on his Disturber III in 1912.
Pugh is eager to take on a hydroaeroplane for a race. The aircraft men declare they can beat any motorboat that ever has been or ever will be constructed with his Disturber II last year the Pistakee lake commodore ran away from the hydroaeroplane which was here during the aviation meet and time after time sought races with it.
He got his boat going good on several occasions and ran from behind right under and out ahead of the amphibious craft, and although they have made improvements in the hydroaeroplane since, Pugh is confident his new Disturber III will go them one better.
The motorboat races which will be a big part of the carnival here in August will be held from Monday. Aug. 12, to Saturday. Aug. 17. During the first three days of the week the three heats in the forty, thirty-two, twenty-six and twenty foot classes will be held. On Thursday. Aug. 15, the free-for-all race for the American championship and the $22,500 Wrigley trophy will take place and on the next day the long distance event to St Joseph will be on the program.
On Saturday Aug. 17, there will be s race for all classes of motorboats. This is only part of the program for the great carnival as the windjammers will see the International yacht races between Canada and the United States In which the best boat of the land of the maple leaf will stack up against the new Michicagou. The Lipton cup races of the Columbia Yacht club will also be held during this period, while the race between the skipperettes of Toronto and Chicago will be an added feature. Commodores Thompson, Pugh and Quaile and Manager Young of the big aquatic carnival have practically completed the details of the program ever given to the boating world.
Inter Ocean, August 4, 1912
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