Plot

Jerry Jones, an enthusiast on motorboating, asks some friends to go with him in a little party. They decide to go, so Jerry hires a motorboat, and his friends bring the lunch. Jerry tries to start the boat, but never having had experience, only knowledge gained from the guide how to run a motorboat, fails. The man, however, from whom he hired the boat, starts it and off they go. Failing to unfasten the boat, one of the boys goes on the dock and detaches it. As the boat is going he is pulled overboard and compelled to swim ashore. Lunch is served and everyone eats and drinks heartily. Charley Graft, who has been imbibing too freely, goes to the stern to wash a plate and accidentally falls overboard. One of the boys throws him a life buoy with a rope attached to it, but he too is suddenly drawn into the water. They swim ashore and bail the boat. Jerry steers for the shore and one of the girls throws a line to the boys in the water. Jerry, not knowing how to stop the boat in order to make a turn, throws the girl into the water. Excitement ensues on board, during which Jerry is thrown into the water, leaving the three girls on the boat. Two of them try to stop the boat by hanging to a buoy and are dragged into the water, leaving Carrie Small alone. She tries to stop the boat, which she succeeds in doing, but cannot start it again. On making an investigation she discovers that the gasoline tank is empty and there is none in the boat. Woman-like, she fills the tank with beer. The boat gets a jag and Carrie, in despair, leaps overboard. The boat goes off on its own account, doing all sorts of stunts in its delirium. Finally it returns to each person, who jumps from the water into the boat and returns home to the dock.—Moving Picture World synopsis