Dave Dashaway and His Hydroplane

In Short

Roy Rockwood’s juvenile adventure novel follows teenage pilot Dave Dashaway and his loyal mechanic sidekick, Hiram Dobbs, through the early days of competitive aviation. Tasked with piloting advanced experimental craft—first the "Baby Racer" biplane and later the "Monarch II" hydro-aeroplane—Dave must navigate treacherous weather, missing aircraft, and a network of ruthless aerial smugglers led by the villainous Dawson family. Written to capture the early 20th-century fascination with flight, the book has endured as a charming historical artifact of American industrial optimism, showing how pluck, integrity, and technical skill triumph over dishonesty.

The Story

The tale opens at a gloomy Columbus aero meet, where veteran airman John Grimshaw delivers an urgent telegram to young Dave Dashaway. With his employer away, Dave faces an immediate crisis: he must reach the town of Kewaukee to protect his company’s business interests before an early-morning deadline. With no train running and roads turned to deep mud, Dave takes a desperate gamble, launching his biplane, the Baby Racer, into a cold, midnight storm alongside his steadfast companion, Hiram Dobbs.

Navigating blind through a gusty drizzle, the young aviators lose support in the air and crash-land in the dark. Fortunately, their fall is broken by a twenty-foot mountain of soft wood shavings in a factory yard. After proving to the night watchman that they are not intruders, they stumble upon an active burglary at the estate of Colonel Lyon. The boys subdue the thief, save the colonel's rare coin collection and valuables, and secure his gratitude and support.

Dave’s reputation as a cool-headed "business boy" grows, earning him an assignment from the Interstate Aeroplane Company to test and fly the Monarch II, an advanced composite hydro-aeroplane featuring float systems and a self-starting mechanism. However, trouble brews when a rival aircraft, the Drifter, is stolen from the company plant. A young thief named Gregg, working alongside the deceitful Jerry Dawson and his father, has hijacked the craft to conduct a lucrative smuggling operation along the Canadian border.

Determined to recover his employer's property, Dave takes to the sky in the Monarch II. Following a trail of midnight flare signals and rocket launches, Dave and Hiram track the smugglers over Lake Superior and across the border. The villains strike back, intentionally sabotaging Dave's elevator wires during an aerial pursuit and taking both Dave and Hiram captive in a remote wilderness cabin.

Undeterred by bruised limbs and closed doors, the boys outwit their captors. While the Dawson gang attempts to double-cross their own confederates with dummy bundles of "silk," Dave and Hiram observe the flight mechanics of their captors, spot an opening, and escape. Meanwhile, Dave’s mentor, expert aviator Robert King, collaborates with law enforcement to rescue Dave’s kidnapped family friend, Mr. Dale. The criminals are rounded up, the stolen aircraft is recovered, and Mr. Dale agrees to finance Dave’s next ambitious dream: building a giant airship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

How It Unfolds

A midnight hazard Facing a severe deadline and impassable mud roads, Dave Dashaway risks his life by piloting the biplane Baby Racer into a night storm toward Kewaukee.

An unexpected landing The biplane plunges out of the dark sky, crashing safely into a massive pile of factory wood shavings, where the boys immediately stumble upon an active mansion burglary.

Assigning the Monarch II Recognizing Dave’s skill and composure, the Interstate Aeroplane Company entrusts him with testing their newest innovation, a state-of-the-art hydro-aeroplane capable of landing on water.

The cloud burglar strikes News spreads that a rival hydroplane, the Drifter, has been stolen by the unscrupulous Dawson family to fly contraband across the northern border.

Mid-air sabotage While pursuing the thieves over Lake Superior, Dave’s machine is targeted by the Dawsons, who drop objects from above to snap his elevator wires.

Captive in the wild After a forced landing, Dave and Hiram are captured by the smuggling ring, who plan to abandon the young aviators hundreds of miles deep in the northern forest.

Outsmarting the gang Taking advantage of a feud between the Dawsons and their confederates over fake plunder, the boys escape custody and assist in bringing the criminal ring to justice.

A new horizon With the Drifter recovered and their missing benefactor rescued, Dave receives full financial backing to design a giant airship built for transatlantic flight.

The People

• Dave Dashaway: A resolute, courageous young aviator who approaches flying as both a science and a business. Driven by loyalty to his mentors and respect for his machinery, he faces mid-air failures and criminal threats with calm, level-headed calculation.
• Hiram Dobbs: Dave’s devoted mechanic chum and co-pilot. Spirited, outspoken, and quick with a joke, Hiram provides unyielding support, gladly taking physical risks and suffering bumps and bruises alongside Dave.
• Jerry Dawson: A talented but deeply deceitful rival pilot. Vain and ruthless, Jerry uses his aviation skills to run contraband, routinely double-crossing his own criminal partners and taking dangerous risks in the air.
• Robert King: A famous, record-breaking aviator and Dave’s employer. King acts as a fatherly mentor, recognizing Dave’s talent and guiding him toward professional aeronautical success.
• Mr. Dawson: Jerry’s gruff, criminal father who orchestrates the smuggling operation and kidnap scheme, viewing extortion and theft as simple business transactions.
• John Grimshaw: A battle-scarred, one-armed former airman turned hangar manager who offers gruff wisdom and unwavering encouragement to the young flyers.

In Its Own Voice

"The lad had never been in so queer a place before. He was a lively, active city boy, but the closest he had ever seen an airship was a distance away and five hundred feet up in the air."

A messenger boy visits an airfield hangar at the opening of the story, highlighting the early-20th-century novelty of aviation.

"There won't be much fooling about it, Hiram. I know the chances and, I shan't look for any fun. It is a bad night, I know, but the wind is right, and I can head straight into it..."

Dave explains his serious, measured attitude before embarking on a dangerous night flight.

"The indicator was directly in front of the pilot seat. It showed positively how the machine was flying, on the top or down bank."

The text details the mechanical specifics of early flight instruments during a high-stakes aerial pursuit.

What It's Really About

Beneath its cliffhangers and aerial dogfights, the novel is a celebration of early 20th-century American technological optimism and mechanical discipline. Flight is not presented as magic or sheer luck, but as a discipline requiring technical mastery, rigorous preparation, and emotional self-control. Dave succeeds where Jerry Dawson fails because Dave respects his engine, monitors his gauges, and flies with integrity. The narrative argues that true manhood and success are built on ethical character, cool-headedness under pressure, and a deep understanding of modern machinery, contrasting the productive, honest worker against the dishonest shortcut-taker.

Why Read It Today

This book will delight enthusiasts of retro-futuristic technology, early aviation history, and classic boys' adventure fiction. Reading it feels like looking through an illustrated window into 1910s popular culture, capturing an era when biplanes, spark plugs, and hydroplanes represented the absolute cutting edge of human ambition. The prose moves at a brisk pace, packed with vintage mechanical jargon—from turnbuckles and outriggers to ailerons and volplane glides—that grounds the melodrama in concrete physical detail.

Modern readers should expect period-typical literary conventions: simplistic character motivations, convenient coincidences, and moral starkness where villains are wholly corrupt and heroes entirely noble. The dialogue carries the formal, deliberate cadence of early 20th-century juvenile serials. Yet despite these predictable patterns, the story's genuine enthusiasm for invention and the high-stakes thrill of open-cockpit flying remain infectious. It leaves you with a fond appreciation for the brave dreamers who treated early airplanes not as dangerous toys, but as the doorway to a smaller, more connected world.