Photo of Henry Ford's restored speed boat, Evangeline.
(Photo courtesy The Rosenfeld Collection, Mystic Seaport) EXCERPT OF STORY FROM WOODYBOATER.COM This September 1926 photo was taken at the Harmsworth Race on the Detroit River. In the foreground are Gar Wood’s Miss America’s III, IV, and V. On the right is the Excelsior-France challenger. On the left is the Evangeline, with Ray Dahlinger on the deck, Henry Ford behind the wheel in the light suit with his foot partially covering the name EVANGELINE on the side, and Evangeline Dahlinger over his right shoulder. Also in this photo far left is Horace Dodge, and standing center-right on the dock in white coveralls is Garfield Wood. The tall, narrow white-sided yacht in the background is Gar Wood’s 70-foot Gar Sr. Guest Post by Henry Dominguez Just when we thought we had come across everything about Evangeline Dahlinger, something new arises. Check out this story for some amazing material on Henry Ford’s speedboat, which he named—believe it or not—Evangeline. After researching Ford history for the past forty years, I, too, had just found out about this boat (although the material in this website is new material to me). I was reading the Reminiscences of Al Esper, one of Henry Ford’s employees who was a mechanic and worked on his and Edsel’s boats, and he mentions in his interview that Henry had a speedboat named Evangeline. (Later, Esper became manager of the Ford test track.)
1924-1933
American industrialist Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford.
(Photo courtesy The Rosenfeld Collection, Mystic Seaport) EXCERPT OF STORY FROM WOODYBOATER.COM This September 1926 photo was taken at the Harmsworth Race on the Detroit River. In the foreground are Gar Wood’s Miss America’s III, IV, and V. On the right is the Excelsior-France challenger. On the left is the Evangeline, with Ray Dahlinger on the deck, Henry Ford behind the wheel in the light suit with his foot partially covering the name EVANGELINE on the side, and Evangeline Dahlinger over his right shoulder. Also in this photo far left is Horace Dodge, and standing center-right on the dock in white coveralls is Garfield Wood. The tall, narrow white-sided yacht in the background is Gar Wood’s 70-foot Gar Sr. Guest Post by Henry Dominguez Just when we thought we had come across everything about Evangeline Dahlinger, something new arises. Check out this story for some amazing material on Henry Ford’s speedboat, which he named—believe it or not—Evangeline. After researching Ford history for the past forty years, I, too, had just found out about this boat (although the material in this website is new material to me). I was reading the Reminiscences of Al Esper, one of Henry Ford’s employees who was a mechanic and worked on his and Edsel’s boats, and he mentions in his interview that Henry had a speedboat named Evangeline. (Later, Esper became manager of the Ford test track.)
