With Airship and Submarine

A chance meeting at a London club gives Sir Reginald Elphinstone a way to help his ailing five-year-old daughter. A specialist has advised a change of air and scene, and Elphinstone turns to his friend, Professor Heinrich von Schalckenberg. The professor has built the Flying Fish, an extraordinary vessel able to sail, travel underwater and rise through the atmosphere. Its lightweight metal and crystal-powered machinery place invention at the heart of Harry Collingwood's adventure novel.

The story pairs these imagined technologies with practical difficulties away from the ship. In a forest scene, Elphinstone and his companions wait for daylight, reason out their position and struggle through dense undergrowth toward a river. Their search brings them into a clearing occupied by an angry gorilla. Readers interested in early science fiction for young audiences will find elaborate descriptions of machinery, discussions among travellers and the dangers of unfamiliar terrain.