WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – A Waterford Township woman is about to part with two lanterns she says once adorned a yacht owned by auto baron Horace Dodge.

The lanterns from the SS Delphine are among thousands of items to be sold by Ellen Kelley at an auction Sept. 7 in Otter Lake, according to The Oakland Press. Kelley said her family acquired the lanterns through friends of the Dodge family, who lived in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.

“They were like an extension of my dear friends” who knew the Dodge family, Kelley, 68, told the newspaper. “They’re like a part of my history, not just a part of local history.”

The 258-foot Delphine was built for Dodge in 1920 and launched after his death in 1921. The Delphine burned and sank in 1926 near New York. It was acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1942, restored and converted into the flagship USS Dauntless, serving in the Pacific Fleet during World War II.

Auctioneer Tim Freese of Otter Lake said he plans to ask for $250 for each lantern.

Kelley said she knows she has to let go of the lanterns and other family heirlooms she has collected over the years.

“I’m turning over a new leaf,” said Kelley, a retired teacher. “I feel like I can actually retire now that I’m letting that stuff go.”

The Delphine is still around and now harbored off the North Africa coast in Tunisia, the newspaper reported. It is listed for sale on yachtworld.com for $39 million.

Dodge had three yachts, said Joel Stone, senior curator at the Detroit Historical Society.

“But this was the largest … and the largest private yacht in the world at the time it was built,” Stone said. “His son, Horace Junior, also raced boats and started his own boat-producing company.”

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Information from: The Oakland Press, http://www.theoaklandpress.com

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AP-WF-09-01-13 0814GMT

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