Presidential Yachts

"ranwhenparked" (ranwhenparked) 11/12/2020 at 21:25 • Filed to: None

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Although the United States, unlike Canada, has never had an issue spending generously to accommodate our leaders - famously gutting and totally rebuilding the White House in the early 1950s and conducting a major renovation of its West Wing just a few years ago, and, unlike the United Kingdom, has never had a problem spending generously on official transportation - what with two dedicated Boeing 747s at the President’s disposal and two new ones on the way - there is one means of both transportation and accommodation that has proven far too controversial over the years to maintain consistently - the matter of a Presidential Yacht.

Before airplanes were practical, obviously, ships were the only way you were getting across oceans, and, in some cases, could also prove more practical for coastal transport from port to port, so, I’m sure, at one time, a Presidential Yacht was thought of the way we think of Air Force One today, though, with changing public perceptions and advancing technology, it ultimately came to be thought of as a wasteful extravagance that no President wanted to be seen spending money on, even if they still kind of wanted to use one.

USS Mayflower

The very first vessel to serve as the official yacht of the President of the United States was the USS Mayflower (PY-1). Mayflower was built by J&G Thomson Ltd. in Clydebank, Scotland in 1896 as a private yacht for Robert Goelet - a wealthy lawyer and financier who served on the boards of New York Life Insurance, Chemical Bank, and Guaranty Trust. As built, she measured 1,000 gross tons and 275 ft. long and had 4,700hp triple expansion steam engines delivering a speed of just under 17 knots. Goelet died on board in August of 1897, only a little over a year after taking delivery. His family had little use for the yacht, and so sold it to the US Navy in March of 1898. Mayflower was refitted at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with 6 6-pounder guns and accommodations for 171 crew and set sail for Cuba. During the Spanish American War, she captured one Spanish merchant vessel and one British ship acting as a blockade runner, and participated in the bombardment that turned the fleeing Spanish fleet back into Havana.

In 1899, Mayflower headed back to New York and was partially refurbished to luxury standards for use as the temporary headquarters for the new American governor of Puerto Rico. Between 1902-1904, Mayflower was used as an executive transport for the Secretary of War and as a command vessel for Admiral Dewey during the Panamanian War of Independence. Finally, she was refurbished again at New York during the winter of 1904-1905 for use as a Presidential Yacht.

Mayflower would serve in that capacity from 1905-1929, during the administrations of Roosevelt (who conducted some of the Russo-Japanese peace talks on board), Taft, Wilson, Harding, and Coolidge, but Herbert Hoover had the yacht decommissioned and sold very early in his administration as an economy measure. During that time, the yacht also briefly posted to the Dominican Republic as a dispatch vessel during 1906.

With no bidders expressing interest in buying her, Mayflower was laid up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, until it was eventually decided to recommission her as a warship. During the conversion work, she caught fire and sank at her berth on January 24, 1931. The hulk was raised, but found to be too costly to repair, and was laid up again until sold to wealthy Chicago businessman Frank Parish. Parish had the yacht completely rebuilt and restored as a luxurious pleasure craft, but was mixed up in a bunch of shady business dealings and had to flee the country to evade prosecution, so he never actually got to use her. For 10 years from 1932-1942, Mayflower was towed or sailed from port to port along the US East Coast as the increasingly derelict ship passed from owner to owner, each one trying to use the vessel as a commercial enterprise - a stint as a dance hall/nightclub, an attempt to refurbish her as a commercial passenger liner, and, of course, interest from scrapyards.

Finally, in July of 1942, the Navy repurchased the ship and had her extensively rebuilt as the coastal patrol vessel USS Butte (WPE-183), this lasted until September of 1943, when she was transferred to the Coast Guard as USCGC Mayflower . With no further use after the war, Mayflower was decommissioned for the final time in early 1946. Initially sold to Canadian interests for use as a seal hunting vessel, fire damage forced an end to that plan, and she was sold to a Zionist organization to become the migrant vessel Malla , bringing European Jews to Palestine. The new Israeli Navy purchased her in 1950, for further use as a coastal defense vessel, which lasted until 1955, when the now 59 year old vessel was finally retired and scrapped.

USS Sequoia

The most famous and longest serving Presidential Yacht, Sequoia was, like her predecessor, originally built as a private vessel. Built by John H. Mathis & Company of Camden, New Jersey as Sequoia II , she was delivered in 1925 to Philadelphia banker Richard Cadwalader, and his wife, Emily Roebling-Cadwalader, an heiress to the Roebling bridge building and iron cable fortune. Sequoia II measured 104 ft. long and 376 gross tons. She was fitted with twin 225hp Winton diesel engines, giving a speed of 12 knots.

The Cadwaladers built a succession of larger and more luxurious yachts, and never held on to one boat for too long. Sequoia II was sold in 1928 to Texan oilman William Dunning. Dunning was largely bankrupted by the Great Depression, and sold the ship to the US Department of Commerce for $40,000 in March of 1931 (with the ship dropping the “II” in the process). The Commerce Department used her as a decoy ship - sailing the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays posing as a wealthy family’s private yacht, in order to entice rum runners and bootleggers to pull alongside offering to sell illegal liquor.

Although Herbert Hoover had made a big deal out of decommissioning Mayflower in 1929, he did make frequent use of Sequoia when not needed for Volstead Act enforcement. This practice continued under Franklin Roosevelt until 1935. However, Roosevelt, who had lost the use of his legs due to Polio, was deathly afraid of being trapped in his bed unable to escape in the event of a nighttime fire, and considered the wooden Sequoia to be too dangerous and refused to use her after that point. With Prohibition over, and the Commerce Department and the White House having no use for her, Sequoia was re-designated as the official yacht of the Secretary of the Navy, serving in that capacity through 1969. However, Presidents continued to “borrow” the yacht frequently for cruises on the Potomac and Chesapeake - with Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all making use of her during this time. Finally, in 1969, it was decided to just make it official - Sequoia was taken away from the Naval Secretary and designated as the Presidential Yacht, serving Nixon and Ford in that capacity through 1977. With shades of Herbert Hoover before him, Jimmy Carter opted to decommission and sell Sequoia in order to save the $800,000 annual cost to taxpayers, a decision he later said he regretted.

Sequoia went through two private owners and an educational nonprofit organization between 1977-1980, finally coming under the ownership of the Presidential Yacht Trust, who moved her back to Washington D.C. and made her available for the use of the President, as well as renting her out for charter cruises and special events. The Trust spent millions in repairs and restoration over 35 years, losing and regaining title to the boat on several occasions. Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton were all hosted on board, and used their influence on occasion to help broker deals to keep the charity solvent. The Trust’s finances declined severely in the mid ‘00s, and they began trying to find a better endowed museum to take her off their hands, which eventually came to nought, and she was sold back into private hands in 2013. After spending 6 years out of the water at a boatyard in Virginia, in badly deteriorated condition and infested with raccoons, Sequoia was moved to a yard in Maine in October of 2019 to begin a full restoration, which was expected to take about a year. There have been no further updates since.

USS Potomac

After finding the wooden hulled Sequoia to be too much of a fire hazard, Franklin Roosevelt opted to commandeer the new Coast Guard cutter Electra as a dedicated Presidential Yacht. Electra had been completed in 1934 by Manitowoc Shipbuilding of Manitowoc, Wisconsin as part of the Coast Guard’s Thestis -class. She measured 165 ft. long, displaced 416 tons at full load, and had a pair of Winton diesels delivering 1,340 hp and a speed of 13 knots.

Electra was taken out of service in 1935 and rebuilt as a luxury yacht, recommissioning in early 1936 as Potomac . Aside from her more fire-resistant steel construction, Potomac was also redesigned to be as wheelchair accessible as possible, with the forward dummy funnel actually concealing a manually operated elevator - FDR had pretty solid upper body strength and would pull himself from deck to deck with the rope and pulley system.

Potomac was heavily used by President Roosevelt between 1936-1945, and hosted numerous WWII strategy sessions with his staff, as well occasional meetings with Sir Winston Churchill. After the war, Harry Truman found the yacht inadequate to his liking. Potomac had poor stability, and Truman would often get seasick on board, and Truman was also upset over the yacht being too small to accommodate a grand piano, so Potomac was handed back to the Coast Guard in May 1946 and decomissioned, being turned over to the State of Maryland for use as a fisheries patrol vessel in the Chesapeake Bay, serving in that role through 1960. From 1960-1963, she was used as a ferry in Puerto Rico, then, following a failed attempt to turn her into a museum ship, was acquired by Elvis Presley, who wanted to donate it to the March of Dimes, for some reason (probably in memory of FDR), but they didn’t want a big yacht, so he donated it to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital instead, who promptly auctioned it off for $65,000. It was then used as a private yacht until at least 1970, when the records get murky. By the early 1980s, Potomac was in the hands of a Mexican drug cartel, making runs into Californian ports. She was eventually arrested by the Coast Guard in San Francisco, but sank while in custody due to poor maintenance. After being raised by the Navy, Potomac was sold to the City of Oakland and, under the leadership of FDR’s son, James Roosevelt, was fully restored with federal grant money. Potomac is now open to the public as a museum and special events venue, and also makes regular excursion cruises.

USS Williamsburg

The final Presidential Yacht in US history, Williamsburg was built in 1930 by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine as the private yacht Aras for pulp and paper magnate Hugh J. Chisholm. She measured over 243 ft. long, displaced 1,800 tons, and was powered by two 550hp Winton diesels giving 13.5 knots.

Aras was purchased by the US Navy in April of 1941, and rebuilt as the gunboat Williamsburg . She served extensively in the North Atlantic and around Iceland as a submarine chaser, coastal patrol vessel, and VIP transport for high ranking officers, until Harry Truman selected her for conversion into a new Presidential Yacht in November of 1945, having found Potomac insufficient for his tastes.

Williamsburg served Truman and Eisenhower through May of 1953, when Eisenhower had her decommissioned as an economy measure, and she was laid up in Norfolk until 1962. That year, she was transferred to the National Science Foundation and rebuilt as the oceanographic research vessel Anton Bruun , serving them until 1968. After 6 years of service, Anton Bruun was scheduled to be donated to the Indian government following refurbishment, but was badly damaged when her floating drydock sank. The damaged ship was sold for conversion to a hotel and restaurant to be moored in Pennsville, New Jersey, but she ran aground while being towed up the Salem River and was abandoned there for the next 25 years. In 1993, Italian investors bought her for conversion into a luxury cruise ship and had her refloated and towed to Genoa. Plans never materialized, and she sat around in Genoa harbor for the next 22 years, becoming increasingly derelict. Intervention by the Italian government in 2010 prevented her from being scrapped while a preservation group tried to raise the necessary funds on Kickstarter, which ultimately failed. After several sale attempts, the badly deteriorated ship sank at her moorings in La Spezia in 2015 and was demolished on site by the local authorities in March, 2016.

Trump Princess

The soon-to-be former President’s former yacht, Trump Princess, started life in 1980 as Nabila , owned by billionaire Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. She measured 281 ft. long and featured a helipad, discotheque, movie theater, swimming pool, and 12 luxurious suites spread over 5 decks. Her sleek, modern design inside and out was by Luigi Sturchio, and construction was by Benetti in Viareggio, Italy at a cost of $100 million (in 1980 dollars). During Khashoggi’s ownership, Nabila was notable for two main things. 1) she was chartered by the producers of the unofficial 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again (a remake of 1965's Thunderball , and the last time Sir Sean Connery would play the role), in which she was used as the villain’s command center, named Flying Saucer (a direct translation of the Disco Volante from the original movie); and 2) served as inspiration for Queen’s song “Khashoggi’s Ship”. As Khashoggi started running into financial difficulties, he sold Nabila to HM The Sultan of Brunei in 1988, who immediately resold it to Donald Trump for $29 million (presumably slightly more than the Sultan had paid, indicating massive depreciation in 8 years).

Trump refitted her to match his personal tastes of smoked glass, pink granite, polished brass, and gold, and renamed her Trump Princess . If that name sounds more like the name of a corporate yacht or maybe a cruise ship, as opposed to something for private use, that was probably intentional. Donald Trump has never really shown any indication of any interest in the sea or sailing, and most likely bought the yacht purely to keep up appearances - he was a billionaire, the public expects billionaires to have yachts, so he bought a yacht. In practice, Trump Princess was used mostly for Trump Organization corporate parties and as a perk to entertain high rollers at his Atlantic City casinos. When a combination of the real estate crash, recession, over-saturation of the New Jersey casino market, and a misguided investment into the corpse of Eastern Airlines came together in the early 1990s, Trump worked out a deal with his creditors to narrowly avert personal bankruptcy. As part of the deal, Trump Princess was sold in 1991 to HRH Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud for $20 million (the depreciation continues) and renamed Kingdom 5KR .

Despite Prince Al-Waleed’s difficulties of the past few years, she appears to remain under his ownership to this day. Donald Trump seems to have had no interest in getting back to the yacht world. Before running for President in 2016, he reportedly asked Newt Gingrich how much a campaign would cost - Gingrich responded at least $70-$80 million at the bare minimum, and Trump responded to the effect of “so, a yacht? I think running for President would be a lot more fun than a yacht”. Considering the past 4 years have knocked at least $1 billion off his personal net worth, a yacht would probably have been the better investment.

Just Jeepin' > ranwhenparked 11/12/2020 at 21:46

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It had never even occurred to me there might be presidential yachts in our past. Thanks for an entertaining read.

ranwhenparked > Just Jeepin' 11/12/2020 at 21:54

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Kennedy in particular seemed to really love Sequoia , possibly because of the implication.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > ranwhenparked 11/12/2020 at 23:05

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Ah, a ranwhenparked boatlopnik post! I hope you’re archiving these because I really enjoy them.

I don’t have time to count but I’m wondering which of the presidential yachts changed hands the most. I think it might be the USS Mayflower. That one had quite a long history only to end up scrapped. Who would have thought almost all of these were on at least their second owner before being converted?!

I had no idea presidential yachts were so interesting!

ranwhenparked > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 11/12/2020 at 23:24

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Old yachts are like Duesenbergs, Renaissance paintings, and Stradivarii, every one of them has an interesting story.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > ranwhenparked 11/12/2020 at 23:38

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I had no idea they tended to have such short ownerships. I guess it quickly goes from a fun idea to a financial liability.

Chariotoflove > ranwhenparked 11/12/2020 at 23:47

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Please keep doing these. 

ranwhenparked > Chariotoflove 11/13/2020 at 00:46

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Next one goes on Opposite-Lock.com: The Hyphen

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ranwhenparked 11/13/2020 at 02:34

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Yes, please. Ttyymmnn is going to be working to get his aviation posts up to speed on Hyphenated Oppo as well. I love the content that you bring.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ranwhenparked 11/13/2020 at 02:35

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Did you watch “The Crown?” There was an episode or two when they took the Queen’s yacht on a long trip and they all grew beards and it was perhaps my favorite episode.

Sovande > ranwhenparked 11/13/2020 at 07:15

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Cool post! I have seen Sequoia out on the Potomac a number of times before she fell into disrepair. 

ranwhenparked > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 11/13/2020 at 09:19

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I haven’t, but Britannia is a cool ship, and fortunately, has been nicely preserved. That’s another one where, like Jimmy Carter, the guy who ordered the decommissioning, Tony Blair, later said it was probably a mistake.

Incidentally, Royal travel costs are said to have actually increased since then, since Britannia was basically a self-contained, fully secured residence that could be moved around from port to port, and now they need to rent large block s of hotel rooms (even whole floors) and run security for the whole building and sometimes surrounding block. She was also heavily used to host trade conferences and the like to promote British exports and foreign investment into the UK.

Chariotoflove > ranwhenparked 11/13/2020 at 10:56

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Wonderful! Maybe we can get your posts so far ported over to kickstart. I hate to think of losing this content. 

gmctavish needs more space > ranwhenparked 11/13/2020 at 23:39

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This is fascinating . I think if a Canadian Prime Minister ever bought a Prime Ministerial yacht, it would end their political career, possibly even result in a vote of non- confidence and cause an election.

ranwhenparked > gmctavish needs more space 11/14/2020 at 00:45

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No doubt. They can’t even bring themselves to request funds for mold remediation and basic electrical repairs at 24 Sussex Drive.