RUSE ON THE CHESAPEAKE

On January 23, 1942, just six weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy purchased the yacht Delphine and put her into dry dock in River Rouge, Michigan, not far from the family estate of Horace Dodge, the automotive titan who had her built. Delphine was not the only yacht so acquired. In a crash program to beef up America’s impoverished fleet, the Navy acquired scores of hulls, but the 258-foot steam yacht Delphine alone was destined for immortality.

Fast forward to November 1943. Adolf Hitler’s grip on continental Europe had scarcely been weakened by costly aerial bombing. Combat in the Pacific was bloody and slow. Main Street America was reeling from war deaths and injuries, and the Allied leaders were stalled by a bitter divide over the war strategy to defeat Germany. Along with Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had concluded the only way to bridge the divide was to present the American plan (D-Day) and the British plan (invade the Greek Islands) to Joseph Stalin