English Ferry Wades Through Ocean Waves
NOT a boat, but a caterpillar-tractor car, is this public utility, located at an English seaside resort. As shown, it holds its passengers above the waves, while picking its way over the bottom. A 24-horsepower engine operates it.

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Water-Mobile

By Everett H. Clark

When the water calls you cruising… when the road beckons you go rolling… always snug inside your traveling home.

THE millions of ex-GI’s who watched wartime amphibious craft climb dripping up the beachheads will recognize the substance of dreams of their own in the “Vacationer,” an amphibious luxury cruiser proposed by industrial designer Robert Zeidman for practical peacetime use. The new civilian amphibian is a descendant of some of the Navy’s experimental vehicles, not the Army’s familiar DUCK. It promises a sustained highway speed of 55 mph and a respectable 10 to 12 knots afloat. Efficient land speed was the first consideration in specifying power; the excellent showing on water is due to improved lines and to the twin screws in tunnels, driven by the twin motors in the stern. Twin rudders give maximum maneuverability.

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Floating garage
When the USS Essex moved its base from Mayport, Fla., to Quonset Point, R.I., officers and men who owned cars received permission to transport them on the carrier’s flight deck. One catch—a warning: If war broke out while they were at sea, the cars would be dumped. The ship carried no planes, as a new flying group will be attached in Rhode Island.

FISHING IN THE OCEAN WITH HORSE AND WAGON

One of the most unusual methods of catching ocean fish is said to have been developed in New England. While the use of huge nets a few miles from shore is common, this particular trap is different because of the fact that all the conveying of workmen and catch is done by horse and wagon—and the trap is more than two miles out at sea. Along this strip of Cape Cod shore the tides completely cover the ocean bottom but, on receding, the water is not more than a few feet deep for several miles out. As a result, the fishermen can start out with horse and wagon after the tide starts to ebb, gather in the fish and return to shore before the water is deep.

Freak Boat Can’t Sink or Tip Over

THE latest in freak boats is the non-sink-able and non-tippable craft shown in the photo above, in which a German inven tor will attempt to cross the Atlantic this winter, to prove that his boat can stand up in the roughest weather.

Its hull is divided into six watertight compartments and has mounted on it an equally water tight cabin, which is protected from spray by a shield around the base.

Sea Waves to Drive Ocean Liner

German engineer plans to build novel “whale mouth” ship using water as propelling medium.

RESEMBLING a ferocious monster of the deep, an ocean liner is being designed in Germany to make use of the sea’s unlimited energy as a propelling medium.

The ship will have an opening in its bow that will give it the appearance of a giant whale swimming over the water with its jaws ready to devour anything in its path. This opening will gather up the ocean waves and pass them through the ship. The water will be ejected by means of spouts along the sides of the liner. The water, forced out under pressure, is expected to drive the ship forward at great speed. As a result the expense of operating a liner is expected to be reduced.

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Mechanical “Lobster”

Deep undersea the claws of this tank will rip to the heart of rotting treasure ships.

THERE’S gold down on the ocean floor. Vast fortunes lie hidden in sunken caches, waiting the hand bold enough to stretch down through the dark pressure-packed waters and bring them to light. Now, with the new ultramodern equipment becoming available, treasure expeditions may become big business.

Treasure salvors know the authentic accounts of divers who have recovered immense treasure from sunken galleons, and know too of numerous other sunken craft that still retain great wealth within their rotting hulks. I myself have salvaged many sunken vessels, bringing to the surface much treasure; I, too, have attempted to recover some of the Spanish treasure that remains beneath the Silver Shoals, off Haiti; and I have walked in the sunken city of Port Royal, the fabulously wealthy “Pirates’ Babylon” off Jamaica.

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Frenchman Crosses Channel With Odd Paddle Device

PROPELLING himself through the water by means of a novel paddle device known as a hydrosphere, Charles Flourons, Paris, France, successfully crossed the English Channel from Cape Griz-Nez to Dover.

Flourons’ hydrosphere consists of a ball one foot in diameter with a double-ended paddle, five feet long, passing through the center. The ball provides buoyancy and the paddles furnish necessary locomotion through the water.

Flourons operates the device by lying on his back in the water and turning the paddle with his hands. The trip was made in about 10-1/2 hours. Flourons left Cape Griz-Nez at 10:30 p.m. and landed at Dover about 8:45 the following morning.

Wind-Propeller Sails Proposed For Liners

GIANT fan blades whirling rapidly in ocean breezes are proposed by an English inventor as a substitute for both sails and engines on ocean-going vessels. Mounted high above deck, the whirling propeller would transfer the wind’s unlimited power to the marine screw propellers of the boat.

A working model of the windmill ship was on demonstration at the Inventions Exhibition sponsored by the Institute of Patentees at Westminster, England.

Since the propeller could face into the wind regardless of the direction the ship is traveling, it is believed highly probable that windmill boats could travel directly into the wind.

A generator mounted on the windmill tower could develop current for electric motors mounted on the propeller shafts, or a shaft could be used to transmit the power.

Human Sailboat Swims at Ease
A HUMAN sailboat made his appearance at the recent diving tournament in London. To take advantage of each puff of wind, this water sports enthusiast attached a small sail to his middle, as shown in the photo below, and so equipped, he swims effortlessly.

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WATER WINGS of PLASTIC

The old-fashioned water harness has been outmoded by gayly colored swimming aids.

BY DON ROMERO

A MAN, a boy, and a girl walk to the edge of a swimming pool, dive into the water, swim the full 75-foot length of the pool, climb out at the other end, and briskly follow each other off the three-foot-high springboard, each slicing into the water in a dive which cuts the surface like a knife.

What’s so remarkable about this?

Nothing except that the man is a war veteran whose entire right arm and lower left leg are missing, the girl is a tiny tot who is not quite four years old, the boy is a 10-year-old who has been a victim of severe spastic paralysis since he was a baby. And until three weeks before not one of these people had ever swum a stroke in his life.

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Diver Hunts Sea Monster
Reports of a weird aquatic monster in the waters of White River in Arkansas led to the curious event pictured at the right. Armed with an eight-foot, steel spear, a professional diver clad in rubber suit and helmet was lowered to the river bottom in an attempt to locate the strange creature. So far, however, no explanation of the rumors has been discovered.