    
rluedeman
New member
Username: rluedeman
Post Number: 1
Registered: 05-2021
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 12:33 pm: | 
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Thanks for the add. I am in the middle of a research project. Lot to unpack here.
The Caliph was a 52 (or 60) foot wooden yacht built by the J.H. Mathis company in Camden, New Jersey for Commodore Martin E. Brigham of Philadelphia. The Caliph competed in the Philadelphia-Havana motor boat races that year and placed well, and she placed first on the return race. It was equipped with a Hall Gas Engine which was changed in 1911 to a 6 cylinder engine built by the Kent Machine Works of Brooklyn New York.
I have a brochure from the Kent people with a picture of the Caliph, the engine, and much praise from Cmdr Brigham
The Caliph was used by the navy as a patrol boat in 1917-1918 and was returned to Cmdr Brigham in December 1918. In 1922, my grandfather, Captain Robert John Ludemann (spelled various ways) bought the Caliph and operated it out of Miami, Florida as a charter boat until at least 1934.
My father, Robert T. Luedemann, grew up on the Caliph.
There are occasional mentions of the Caliph and my family in the archives of the Miami Herald, the Miami News, and periodicals like the Rudder and Motor Boating.
I would like to assemble as much information as I can find about the Kent Engine that was fitted, the Caliph, and her eventual disposition.
My grandfather also operated the Say When and the Margrave charter boats in the 1930s.  |
