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Anchor was born in 1918 to Tony Jensen and Bessie Schneider-Butler. He passed away in 2000. [1]
"Anchor Jensen grew up in the shop, first sweeping floors, then learning the shipwright's trade from a master. In the 1930s the Jensens built for their own use the 38-foot Meteor, designed by George Jensen, a somewhat futuristic cruiser, bulbous, pointed at both ends, and powered by two Chrysler engines. A true one-of-a-kind, it was later owned by glass artist Dale Chihuly and by musician Neil Young.
Anchor became foreman at the boatyard in 1937. He enlisted during World War II, graduated first in his class at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, and served on the battleship USS Iowa. In 1950 he married Ann Katheryn Clark (1919-1997).
Anchor Jensen's ability to adapt traditional methods to modern uses was never more apparent than in 1950, when Seattle auto dealer Stan Sayres (1896-1956) hired him to build a hydroplane of revolutionary design. On June 26, 1950, Slo-Mo-Shun IV, driven by Sayres, was clocked at 160 m.p.h. on Lake Washington, smashing the previous world record. In 1952 it did even better, hitting more than 178 m.p.h., and won the Gold Cup three times before being largely destroyed in a crash on the Detroit River in 1956. Fully restored, it is on display at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry.
Anchor Jensen was a consummate shipwright, and he built several hundred classic wooden boats and repaired or restored thousands of others. He was felled by a stroke at his boatyard on August 13, 2000, and died shortly thereafter. His son, DeWitt Jensen (b. 1952), took over ownership of the shop. In 2017, Jensen's and Lake Union Dry Dock were the only two survivors among the companies mentioned herein." [2]
Sources
- ↑ Washington Death Index, 1965-2014: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLW9-7BDR
- ↑ https://www.historylink.org/file/20366
- United States Census, 1940: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K93S-NHL
- United States Social Security Death Index: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V9PR-LZ3
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23754359/anchor-jensen
Other Seattle Area Boatbuilders and Designers
- John Anderson
- Norm Blanchard
- Norm Blanchard, Jr.
- Leigh Coolidge
- Frank Curtis
- Walt Curtis
- Al Curtis
- Otis Cutting
- Victor Arthur Franck
- Ruth Russell Franck
- Victor Russell Franck
- Bill Garden
- Ted Geary
- Lewis Grandy
- Earl Grandy
- Bill Grandy
- Tony Jensen
- Dewitt Jensen
- Harry Jones
- John McLean
- Frank Prothero
- Bob Prothero
- Robert Prothero, Jr.
- Sivert Sagstad
- George Stebbins