Gar Wood and the Porpoises [1935]

Sport Shorts

Last week Miami's Biscayne Bay seemed calm as a millpond. But when Gar Wood, water speedster, went out in his Miss America X to break his world's record of 124 miles an hour, he also ran into unseen Florida bumps. He was making a turn on a warm-up spin when the water swirled ahead of him. A school of porpoises appeared. The speedboat grazed a sleek black back, snapped her propeller shaft, and went to the repair shop.

(Reprinted from Newsweek, April 6, 1935, p.19)


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