2019 marks the centennial of the hydrofoil speed record achieved by Alexander Graham Bell and F.W. (Casey) Baldwin. “It took Bell and Baldwin eleven long years of trial and error, high hopes and dashed dreams, exceptional insights and false leads to achieve their extraordinary success with HD-4.”

On September 9 1919, Alexander Graham Bell and Casey Baldwin broke the world speed records on water – the HD-4 travelled 70.86 (113 km) per hour skimming across the Bras d’Or Lake. Nova Scotia (and specifically Victoria County) became the site of some of the most advanced technological testing and experimentation with hydrofoils in the world. The record-setting private enterprise of Bell and Baldwin became the earliest sustained hydrofoil experiment in history.

Join Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site/Parks Canada, the Alexander Graham Bell Foundation, Theatre Baddeck, Penguin Random House, the International Hydrofoil Society and other partners and funders as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the HD-4 speed records achieved in Cape Breton and the recreational and commercial development and use of hydrofoils over the last 100 years.

From September 9 to 11 2019 there will be community celebrations for all ages at the National Historic Site in Baddeck that will include the launch of a new book about Casey Baldwin, staged readings of Eric Walter’s The Hydrofoil Mystery by Theatre Baddeck along with presentations by the author, interactive exhibits and lectures, and a virtual reality experience of the HD4.

Stay tuned for more information.

For Theatre Baddeck’s production of The Hydrofoil Mystery
Buy Tickets »  ($15 each)

“One of the most interesting of the strange things that have come from Dr. Graham Bell’s laboratories is a weird looking glider that recently has been tearing up the peaceful Bras d’Or Lakes at the rate of 70 miles per hour.” (Annual Report of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution, 1919)