Built in 1921 by the Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, MI for Mrs Anna T. Dodge.
She burned and sank in the Hudson River in 1924, resting on the bottom for four months and was raised and refitted at a cost of $750,000.
The yacht was laid up behind the Dodge mansion, Rose Terrace, on Lake St. Clair between 1934 and 1940 as the owner, now Mrs Dillman, toured Europe with her second husband.
In 1940 she was activated but grounded near Manitoulin Island later that year. Again, she was salvaged and refurbished.
Acquired by the Navy in January, 1942, she became the USS Dauntless (PG-61) the flagship of the Commander-In-Chief of the US Fleet. Her original name was restored when she was returned to her owner in 1946 and, once again, she was refitted.
She was in use through the mid 1950s on the Great Lakes, but from that year until 1962 she was again tied up behind the mansion on Lake St. Clair.
In 1962 she began a leisurely refurbishment, lasting about four years, in shipyards in Michigan, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The yacht was sold in 1967 to the Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship, Piney Point, Maryland as a training ship for merchant seamen. She was renamed 'Dauntless'.
In 1986 a New York company bought her with the object of restoring her to her former glory, but these plans came to naught.
Sold again in 1989, she crossed the Atlantic, but her new owner, Sea-Sun Cruises gave up the idea of restoring her.
In 1997 the Bruynooghe family bought her and she underwent a six year restoration.
She now makes chartered cruises in the Mediteranean.
1,255GT, 242' x 36', twin screw, 4exp, 11 knots.
(Bruce Carson)