The Incredible Story of Jeffy Jan II, a Chris-Craft that was almost lost to history

By Don Gulliksen, Lake Hopatcong Chapter

Our Chris Craft was built in 1931, now over 90 years ago. We don’t know how many owners she has had or how many adventures she has been a part of. She lived through the Great Depression and World War II. She even survived the boat industry shift to fiberglass and didn’t end up on a burn pile. Now she has moved on to new caretakers, but we don’t know who. 

Don’t you wish your boat could tell stories? Some are fortunate to know the history of their boats through research or perhaps the boat has been in the family since new. This is the story of our friend and her family’s boat and how the history of that relationship came back into the light after many years. 

It all started in a familiar way. A father with a young family that enjoyed boating on the St. Lawrence River and camping on many of the Ontario government-owned campsites among the Thousand Islands. He loved Chris-Crafts, so he partnered with his brother-in-law and got one when the kids were still young. As his family grew, the inevitable happened – he needed a bigger boat. They lived right on the St. Lawrence in Prescott, Ontario, so a new 1937 36 foot Chris-Craft Cruiser would fit perfectly against their bulkhead. This time Herbert H. Caldwell decided to order a boat that was in scarce supply due to the war effort spooling up. This is a photo from the Chris-Craft brochure he likely perused at the time. 

Chris-Craft sales brochure.

Our friend and neighbor, Betty Walker, was about 10 years old. She has fond memories of being on the new boat named the Jeffy Jan II for cruises up and down the St. Lawrence, stopping at the government-owned islands, starting a campfire with the government-supplied firewood and spending long weekends fishing and being with her family aboard their beautiful new cruiser. The boat was named after Betty’s older brother Geoffrey and her cousin Janice. If you would like a real treat, try plugging this URL (https://youtu.be/5NvogBU4yqA) into your browser to see some home movies of the Jeffy Jan II being enjoyed by her family. When is the last time you dressed like this for a cruise in your boat? Be assured, Betty could name every person in the video, right down to their hired hand, Andy, who helped out on the boat during his summer break. 

While out cruising one weekend after owning the boat for a relatively short time, news quickly spread that the British and Canadians had entered the war against the Germans. It was September 19, 1939, a date that Betty would never forget. Betty’s father instructed the family to immediately pack up, untie the Jeffy Jan II and head for home in Prescott. The next day, Herbert gave the Jeffy Jan II to the Canadian Royal Navy with a simple handshake. 

Now that might have been the end of this story, as many boats like this were used and abused in service to their country and ended up in burn piles after the war ended.

Not so with the Jeffy Jan II. She had more story to tell than that and Betty was there to fill in the blanks. You see, this delightful family cruiser became quite a celebrity during her wartime service. She was used as a tender to the larger warships on the St. Lawrence – the perfect job for a beautiful white and mahogany cruiser with plenty of room for a family of four to spend the weekend cruising or even some of history’s most important political figures making decisions that would affect the future of the world. 

As the war effort continued in 1943, top secret meetings took place in Canada between President F.D. Roosevelt, Sir Winston Churchill and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. They were planning the Normandy Invasion in the following year and the Jeffy Jan II is how they got back and forth to the Royal Navy ship in Quebec Harbor.

As you can imagine, there were plenty of security guards, officers, aides and some of the most powerful people in the world – all congregating around that beautiful 1937 Chris-Craft Cruiser. She became known as ‘Churchill’s Yacht’ to everyone around the harbor.   

Again, you might have thought this was the end of the story. A pretty happy ending for a beautiful boat. She served her owners well, then went on to serve their nation honorably. But her story wasn’t over yet. Herbert was offered the boat by the Canadian government after the war, but he had moved on to other ventures, so she was sold and passed through the hands of a few owners before ending up a derelict boat on the banks of the river. 

One day in 2015, Betty got a call from the Director of the Naval Museum of Quebec. You see, they had salvaged the boat and restored her to her 1939 condition so she could be put on display as an important artifact of the Canadian war effort. The Jeffy Jan II is the only remaining naval witness to the war activity in the Port of Quebec between 1939 and 1945. Betty was the last person alive to be able to authenticate details of how she looked back in those days so the museum relied on her, right down to the pale blue color of the sofa that was originally in the boat. 

77 years after last being aboard the boat, Betty was reunited with her childhood memories at the re-christening of the Jeffy Jan II at the museum. Her sons and their families attended and got a taste of what it must have been like growing up on the St. Lawrence as a child of a father who appreciated the beauty of their new 1937 Chris-Craft Cruiser, but without hesitating, contributed her to his nation’s war effort. 

Stories like this might be locked up in the  bones of your family boat and you will likely never know any of the details. Wouldn’t it be great if they could somehow tell us what they have experienced? Even if you aren’t as lucky as Betty and the Jeffy Jan II, make sure to make your own memories that can be passed down to your friends and family in the years to come. Many thanks to my friend Betty for sharing this story with me. 

Betty passed away in 2024 at the age of 98. Thanks to her efforts, and that of the Naval Museum of Quebec, the story of Jeffy Jan II and its incredible place in history will continue to be told for generations to come. Without them and countless others who document the history of their vessels, stories like this might be locked away forever.