The Lost Ehne Family Boat – Amelia.
Here at Woody Boater we absolutely love these sort of stories. Its the magic of the www, and our fellow Woody Boaters all coming together to help. This story is from Charles Ehne looking for his uncles boat. Take it away Charles.
Thanks Woody Boaters, I am trying to find this boat built by my uncle in the Philadelphia area and sold to an unknown person upon his death. The photos are attached to help locate this boat. This boat was built by Harry Ehne around 1945, probably with the help of William Ehne.
This boat was hand built and I think it was powered by a race engine from Barney Oldfield. Other recollections said that it was powered by a liberty engine Boat was built by Harry Ehne and stored in Atlantic City at the home of William Ehne. Upon William’s death in 1973, boat was sold, presumable to someone in New England, possible New Hampshire. I know the boat was hand built, but I don’t know if it was based on a specific design.
The Boat was named Amelia, after Harry and William’s mother. The Boat was built and kept at a boat house by the Bridesburg prison on the Pennypack creek in an area just north of Philadelphia
I am guessing that the boat is approximately 22 foot long.
Harry also had an excellent mechanical background and was a maintenance manager at Aston Hill in Philadelphia. William had a marine repair shop located near Captain Sterns in Atlantic City and had a lifelong love affair with the water and boats. William career was dedicated to the repair of boats and his facility was on Massachusetts Avenue, in Atlantic City.
I am trying to locate this boat as it is part of my family history. If anyone knows any history of this boat, please contact me.
Charles Ehne charlesehne@yahoo.com
What a beautiful runabout that is clearly not your typical home built. The lines of the boat are very similar to Hacker designs. I wish the family well in finding this wonderful piece of family history.
What a beautiful boat, he was obviously talented. The unique detail I see is what looks like a small stainless trim piece just above the waterline where a spray rail would typically go. It wraps around onto the transom as does the rub rail. I’m not sure if this was common for this era or not, just something I noticed. I wish them luck in finding it.
Someone out there knows something about her. Hope she is still intact.
Good Luck!
The engine hatches look large enough for a Liberty, they’re huge. Boat looks more like 25′. CC “Bear claw” vents on the engine hatches? Barney Oldfield died in ’46 if that was about the time boat was built at end of WWII? Are those pictures of shake down cruise? no windshield on boat and guys huddled around front cockpit looking at gauges and no stern pole flag like it was just launched.
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Not sure where Amelia went but the attached article from the September 1943 issue of MotorBoating Magazine (p54) hints at where the brothers might have acquired an airplane engine
Probably not Liberty powered given the boats shorter length and smallish exhaust pipes. Maybe a Scripps 12 or Hisso V8 or something along those lines?
Charles,
I wish you luck on finding your family boat. I researched for the owner of my boat in old directories and actually found the owner. The way I went about it was first looking for the boat and tracing it back to the owner at the time. I have a 1957 Capri and it just so happened I had old copies of the Antique Chris-Craft Club newsletters where they always published boats and owner that had membership. I found the owner from a 1976 copy of the Brass Bell and it listed the model, year and length next to him. You may just get lucky if you could find some old ACBS directories and take a look through the models section. You may be surprised!
Good luck!
Hi, it is my uncle looking for the boat. Harry was my grandfathers brother. I may have some more information to help this along. The boat was sold from Atlantic City NJ. At Atlantic Marine. The marina and diesel repair Harry owned. Harry was a full traveling machinist and there were actually 3 liberty engines through a custom built gear box to a single shaft. The boat was sold pre-1978 without engines. Harry also built a scale model of this boat with a single hand built engine it that we still have. Maybe this will remind someone?