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The Floating White House: A Brief History of the Presidential Yacht

By: Evan Andrews

Updated: October 31, 2023 | Original: August 18, 2017

Before there was Air Force One, there was the presidential yacht. Dating back to the 19th century, America’s chief executives utilized navy ships and other vessels for recreation and entertaining foreign dignitaries. Nearly a dozen different ships acted as the “Floating White House” between 1880 and 1977, when the last vessel was sold at auction. During that time, they were the scene of international diplomatic summits, congressional schmoozing and the occasional Potomac River pleasure cruise.

The executive yacht “served an important purpose in enabling Presidents to escape the claustrophobic tension of the White House,” former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has written. It “provided a quiet sanctuary; it was handier than Camp David, easier for casual, informal discussions.”

Abraham Lincoln made use of a steamboat called the River Queen during the Civil War , but the first official presidential yachts date to the Gilded Age. Starting in 1880, America’s commanders in chief sailed aboard a series of Navy vessels including  USS Despatch , USS Dolphin and USS Sylph . In 1886, Despatc h famously ferried Grover Cleveland across New York Harbor for the dedication of the Statue of Liberty .

Presidential boating entered a new era in the early 1900s, when  USS Mayflower took over as the chief executive’s official yacht. Unlike earlier vessels, which were relatively austere in their design, Mayflower was a luxury craft previously owned by real estate millionaire Ogden Goelet. Measuring some 275 feet from stem to stern, it boasted a crew of over 150 and had a sumptuous interior that included a 30-person dining table and bathtubs made from Italian marble.

USS Mayflower is most famously associated with Theodore Roosevelt , who often used it and  USS Sylph for family vacation cruises along Long Island. A more official use came in August 1905, when Roosevelt hosted Japanese and Russian envoys aboard  Mayflower as part of his attempts to mediate peace talks in the Russo-Japanese War . He would later win the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the conflict.

Mayflower served as a presidential plaything for over two decades. Woodrow Wilson is said to have wooed his second wife Edith Bolling Galt during romantic jaunts aboard the ship, and Calvin Coolidge reportedly loved the yacht so much he stationed a Navy chaplain aboard so that he could take Sunday morning cruises without being accused of skipping church. Nevertheless, the ship’s opulence proved to be a sticking point with critics of presidential excess. In 1929, with economic concerns on the rise, Herbert Hoover  finally had  Mayflower decommissioned.

Mayflower was the largest and stateliest of the presidential yachts, but it wasn’t the last. Hoover—a devoted fisherman—soon began making day trips on a wooden-hulled vessel called USS Sequoia , and he eventually grew so attached to it that he had it featured on his 1932 Christmas card. Franklin D. Roosevelt began his tenure with Sequoia , but later switched to USS Potomac, a 165-foot former Coast Guard cutter that included a special elevator to help the wheelchair-bound president move between decks.

FDR occasionally utilized the ship for official business—it carried him to a 1941 meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill —but it was more frequently used for presidential leisure. In his book Sailor in the White House: The Seafaring Life of FDR , author Robert Cross writes that Potomac provided Roosevelt with “an instant means of extricating himself from the confines of Washington. Roosevelt could escape to the open water, where he could do some politicking and thinking, or relax and entertain on deck with friends and advisors, or simply throw a fishing line overboard and patiently wait for a bite.”

Recreation was also the main role of the presidential yachts during the administration of Harry Truman , who hosted floating poker games aboard Sequoia and the 243-foot USS Williamsburg. Dwight D. Eisenhower was more of a landlubber than his predecessors, but sea excursions became popular again in the 1960s, when Sequoia resumed its former role as the main presidential yacht. John F. Kennedy —who also utilized a yacht called Honey Fitz and a sailboat called Manitou —celebrated his final birthday with a party aboard Sequoia. Lyndon B. Johnson installed a liquor bar and enjoyed having movies projected on the main deck.

As the longest serving of the executive yachts, Sequoia played host to several chapters in presidential history. The 104-foot vessel was a more humble affair than many of the other yachts, but the seclusion of its elegant, mahogany-paneled saloon made it an ideal location for sensitive political discussions. Harry Truman talked nuclear arms policy aboard the ship with the prime ministers of Britain and Canada. In the mid-1960s, Lyndon Johnson used yacht trips to hash out Vietnam strategy and lobby legislators to support his Great Society domestic reforms. “The Sequoia was a rostrum from which he was trying to persuade congressmen and senators,” former Johnson aide Jack Valenti said.

Richard Nixon was undoubtedly the most the enthusiastic user of  Sequoia. The 37th president reportedly made as many as 100 trips aboard the yacht, including one in which he met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to negotiate the S ALT I nuclear arms agreement . Near the end of his second term, Nixon also used  Sequoia as a hideout from the controversies of the Watergate scandal . During one final cruise in August 1974, the embattled president reportedly informed his family of his decision to resign before retiring to the ship’s saloon, quaffing a glass of scotch and playing God Bless America on the piano.

The age of the presidential yacht came to a close in 1977. That year, newly inaugurated Jimmy Carter ordered that  Sequoia be offloaded in a public sale. Carter later noted that he was disturbed by the yacht’s $250,000 annual upkeep, but he was also following through on a campaign promise to dispense with the extravagance of the presidency. “Despite its distinguished career, I feel that the Presidential yacht Sequoia is no longer needed,” he wrote in a memo to his Secretary of Defense.

Today, Sequoia and  Potomac are the only two former presidential yachts still in existence. Potomac went through several different owners after its presidential service—including Elvis Presley —and is now moored in Oakland, California. Sequoia, though currently inactive and in a state of disrepair, was once used as a floating museum and private charter boat, and still retains much of its presidential memorabilia. Both vessels are now registered as National Historic Landmarks.

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What Ever Happened to the Presidential Yacht?

The "floating White House" once provided a venue for American officials, prom parties, and leisurely afternoons offshore. Now it's rotting away in a boatyard and has become home to raccoons.

• The USS Sequoia was built in 1925 and served eight presidents before Jimmy Carter put it up for auction in 1977
• John F. Kennedy added a king-size bed to the yacht and celebrated his 46th birthday on the boat. Marilyn Monroe may have also joined him for a cruise or two.
• It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 and commanded rental fees of $10,000 a day at one point.
• It's now reportedly deteriorating in a Virginia boatyard. Following a prolonged legal battle, a judge last year awarded a Washington, D.C.-based company the right to acquire it for $0.

Presidents travel in style. Perks of the office include a custom Boeing 747 for long range journeys, a Sikorsky Sea King helicopter for shorter jaunts, and an apocalypse-proof armored Cadillac limousine, nicknamed "the Beast," for ground transit. As luxurious as this sounds, one form of transportation has been conspicuously absent from the chief executive's lineup for 40 years: the presidential yacht.

Numerous ships have been commissioned to carry the president since 1880. The longest serving and most famous among them is the USS Sequoia , which carried eight presidents as a "floating White House" from 1933 until 1977. Docked at Pier One in the Washington Navy Yard, the presidential yacht provided an easily accessible and secure location for conducting meetings, entertaining dignitaries, and avoiding media scrutiny.

Designed by renowned Norwegian naval architect Johan Trumpy in 1925, the 104-foot, mahogany-hulled motor yacht could sleep six and accommodate 40 revelers for cocktails on the spacious aft-deck or 22 guests for a formal dinner in the salon. Trumpy yachts represented the pinnacle of seafaring luxury in their day and were sought out by titans of industry like DuPont, Chrysler, Firestone, and Dodge for their speed, range, and comfort.

Purchased from a Texas oil tycoon by the U.S. Government in 1931, the Sequoia was briefly deployed by the Department of Commerce as a decoy ship on the Mississippi in an effort to capture rum-runners during Prohibition. It was officially commissioned by the Navy in 1933 and President Hoover promptly sailed the newly christened USS Sequoia to Florida for a sport-fishing expedition. President Hoover had decommissioned the 318-foot USS Mayflower as an austerity measure early in his term but was so fond of the Sequoia that he featured it on the White House Christmas card in 1932. A move that many construed as callous as he sought to steer the country out of the depths of the Great Depression.

Franklin Roosevelt also fished from Sequoia , often pulling perch from the Potomac River, but primarily used the boat for more serious matters. During World War II he and Winston Churchill discussed military strategies on board, meetings that required FDR to officially decommission the ship to accommodate the prime minister who would not drink on a Navy vessel. The change in official status allowed for the guilt-free consumption of "Churchill Martinis" while the two discussed D-Day cruising the Chesapeake.

Each president updated Sequoia to serve his personal needs and tastes. FDR installed an elevator to more easily access each deck by wheelchair, and Harry Truman added a spinet piano to the main salon. LBJ lowered the floor of the shower to accommodate his six-foot-four frame and replaced FDR's elevator with a wet bar.

John F. Kennedy, whose modifications included the addition of a king-size bed, used Sequoia sparingly. He did celebrate his 46th, and final, birthday on board, however, and it is rumored that Marilyn Monroe joined him for a cruise or two. It is hard to know for sure, though, as a crewmember destroyed all of the relevant ship's logs after Kennedy's death.

Richard Nixon was the most avid sailor of the Sequoia , logging 88 trips while in office. Some voyages were better than others. He negotiated the SALT I nuclear arms treaty with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev on board and anguished over the decision to resign with a bottle of scotch at Truman's piano. He went on to announce to his family the plan to resign the presidency, rather than face impeachment, while cruising the Potomac.

The first family was often aboard but no presidential offspring made better use of Sequoia than Gerald Ford's daughter, Susan. She and friends from Holton Arms School enjoyed the sunset and a dinner of beef stroganoff in the main salon before celebrating their senior prom at the White House in 1975. She also celebrated her 19th birthday on board and joined her father for many of his cabinet meeting-cum-dinner parties, which the gregarious president visibly enjoyed.

In an interview about the Sequoia with Newsweek in 2012, Henry Kissinger explained the unique day-to-day role of the yacht: "It's important for the president to be by himself, to remove himself from the machinery of the White House. Of course, he can get on a plane and go to Florida or anywhere else, but that requires throwing the machinery into motion. But here, he just can say at five o'clock, 'I'm going to the boat, I'm taking four or five people. And you don't have to call it a meeting and you don't have to prepare the papers.'"

Its reputation as a diplomatic instrument and suitable refuge for wary presidents could not protect the Sequoia from the prevailing political tides of 1977. The tab for keeping the Sequoia shipshape and staffed was running $800,000 a year when Jimmy Carter took office, and he viewed the expense as "unjustified and unnecessary." In keeping with his campaign promise to trim the trappings of the "Imperial Presidency," President Carter ceremoniously auctioned it off for $236,000, bringing to an end the era of the presidential yacht.

For many years following President Carter’s sale, the Sequoia enjoyed celebrity status in the private sector. Famed not only for her long service to presidents, but also as one of the best-preserved Trumpys still floating, the yacht commanded rental fees of $10,000 per day. The Sequoia was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 and renters were able to experience a yacht preserved to presidential standards.

As with all wooden hulled vessels, the Sequoia required near constant maintenance, often having to be hauled out of the water for repairs. During one such refit Washington attorney Gary Silversmith, whose Sequoia Presidential Yacht Group LLC operated the vessel, became entangled in a lawsuit with a lender . The boat remained "on the hard" (on land) as the case wound its way through the courts, allowing it to fall further into disrepair.

Vice Chancellor Sam Glassock, the presiding judge in the case, noted the depressing state of the once-glamorous ship in his 2016 ruling : "The Sequoia, an elderly and vulnerable wooden yacht, is sitting on an inadequate cradle on an undersized marine railway in a moribund boatyard on the western shore of the Chesapeake, deteriorating and, lately, home to raccoons."

Glassrock ruled that FE Partners LLC , a joint venture between the D.C.-based Equator Capital Group and members of an Indian family with connections to the mining and shipping industry, could acquire the yacht for $0. FE Partners, which also owns Joseph P. Kennedy’s 31-foot yawl Tenovus, has said it plans to return the Sequoia to her home waters once the raccoons are evicted and the restoration is completed.

This will be no small feat but Michael Cantor, managing partner at Equator Capital Group, is determined to see Sequoia sail again. He speculates that journey will require a specialized crane to remove the yacht from the marine railway to a boatyard staffed with at least 20 historically trained shipwrights who will need to source three specific types of wood for the keel, frame, and hull. The price tag for the restoration could ultimately reach into the millions of dollars, but to Cantor the cost and effort are worthwhile to preserve what he views as the most significant piece of American history in private hands. He adds that should any president want to use the yacht once it is completed, it will certainly be available to them.

Throughout its storied career, the Sequoia bore witness to all the hallmarks of the modern presidency: historic feats of diplomacy, alleged extramarital affairs, and Russian intrigue. The office still claims many of those traits, but it no longer has the yacht. That ship has sailed.

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Classic Yacht Register

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• Yachts For Sale
• Presidential Yachts

1. River Queen

Served grant and lincoln, 1865-1866, 2. uss despatch , 1873, served cleveland, 1880-1891, 3. uss dolphin 1884.

Dolphin was the first Navy ship to fly the Flag of the President of the United States during President Chester A. Arthur's administration, and the second Navy ship to serve as a presidential yacht.

4. USS Sylph , 1890

USS Sylph (PY-5) was a steam yacht that served as a presidential yacht from the late 19th century through to the early 1920s. A converted yacht, she was purchased in June 1898 from her builder, the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works, of Chester, Pennsylvania, and commissioned on 18 August 1898 at the Norfolk Navy Yard.

5. USS Mayflower , 1896

Mayflower —a luxurious steam yacht built in 1896 by J. and G. Thompson, Clydebank, Scotland for millionaire Ogden Goelet who died on board the Mayflower in August 1897.  The following year she was purchased by the U.S. Navy to help fight the Spanish Navy off Cuba.  Around 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt had her re-purposed as a presidential yacht, which could be used to conduct diplomacy in addition to serving as a nautical means of transportation for the Commander-in-Chief. With her long bowsprit, tall masts, elegant lines, and white paint, she was sure to make a good impression on visiting foreign diplomats. In fact, that same year aboard the ship President Roosevelt hosted the formal negotiations between Russia and Japan to end the Russo-Japanese War. The  Mayflower  continued to serve as the presidential yacht under Presidents Taft, Wilson, Harding, and Coolidge. One of Herbert Hoover's early acts as president was to dispense with Mayflower as an economy measure, saving upkeep costs of $300,000 per year. (More about Mayflower at the Coolidge Foundation .)

6. USS Sequoia , 1925

The yacht is 104 feet (32 m) long, with a wooden hull, and was designed by John Trumpy Sr., a well-known shipbuilder. It includes a presidential stateroom, guest bedrooms, a galley and dining room, and was at one time retrofitted with an elevator for Franklin D. Roosevelt (Lyndon Johnson had it removed and replaced with a liquor bar).

The ship was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. Following years of neglect and legal battles over ownership, Sequoia is last reported to be in extremely poor condition in Chesapeake Boat Works in Deltaville, Virginia (2017). Her owners estimate that removal of the yacht would require a specialized crane and complete reconstruction of the hull.

7. USS Potomac , 1934

USS Potomac (AG-25) , formerly USCGC Electra , was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential yacht from 1936 until his death in 1945. A National Historic Landmark, Potomac is now berthed in Oakland, CA, and is available for public tours and cruises.  https://www.usspotomac.org

Potomac is also an Honorary Member of the CYA.

8. USS Williamsburg , 1930

The USS Williamsburg   relieved Potomac as presidential yacht on 10 November 1945. She served Presidents Truman and Eisenhower.

During Truman’s tenure, she embarked such American and foreign notables as Secretary of State George Marshall, President Miguel Alemán of Mexico; and two successive British Prime Ministers, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee. During the ship's first tour as presidential yacht, she cruised the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay regions, while occasionally venturing into the open sea for cruises to Florida, Bermuda, Cuba, and the Virgin Islands.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, made only one cruise in Williamsburg before ordering her decommissioned.  Accordingly decommissioned at the Washington Navy Yard on 30 June 1953, she was turned over to the Potomac River Naval Command for maintenance and preservation. Subsequently shifted to Newport, Rhode Island, she remained in "special status" from about 2 April 1959. Williamsburg was struck from the Navy list on 1 April 1962.

9. Honey Fitz , 1931

The 93-foot wooden yacht was originally built in 1931 by Defoe Shipyard in Bay City, Michigan for Sewell Avery, a prominent businessman from Chicago, who mostly used it to cruise around Lake Michigan. On June 23, 1945, Lenore became a tender for the USS Potomac . Retaining the yacht’s original name, Truman renamed the tender the yacht Lenore II and mainly used her as a tender for the Williamsburg .

Eisenhower decided the Williamsburg was “too rich for my blood,” and retired her, choosing instead the Lenore II, which he renamed Barbara Anne after one of his granddaughters.

The wooden yacht acquired a more public profile in the 1960’s during John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s presidency. JFK renamed her Honey Fitz , the nickname used by his maternal grandfather.

Johnson continued to use the yacht during his administration, mainly for dinner and cocktail parties.

By the time Nixon came to office, the Honey Fitz was a well-known yacht. Although Nixon renamed the yacht Patricia after his wife, the press and indeed everyone, continued to think of the yacht as Honey Fitz. Nixon sold Honey Fitz in 1970.

Honey Fitz has been fully restored and is available for charters in Florida. Honey Fitz Facebook page

10. Manitou , 1937

Manitou is a 62-foot-long performance cruising yacht designed and built for racing. She served as J.F.K.'s yacht during his presidency. She was built in 1937 at the M. M. Davis & Son shipyard in Solomons Island, Maryland, Design No. 99 of naval architects Sparkman & Stephens, who built many America's Cup racing yachts.

After a successful racing career, Manitou was sold in 1955 and donated to the US Coast Guard to be used as a training vessel at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.

President Kennedy used Manitou while he was in office. Manitou was returned to private ownership in 1968 when she became a training vessel for the Harry Lundenburg School of Seamanship in Maryland.

She had an extensive refit in 2011, and is now in the Medeterranean and available for charter on the French Riveira.

U.S. State Yachts

1. washington state: olympus , 1929.

Launched as "Junaluska" in 1929, the yacht came west in the thirties and was used by the military in WWII.  Following the war she was acquired by the State of Washington and renamed Olympus .  She was ostensibly intended as a fisheries patrol vessel, but was actually used as a yacht by the governor, Mon Walgren.  After failing to win re-election in 1948, the state sold the yacht. 

Current location: New York

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The Floating White House was originally commissioned as the USCG Cutter Electra in 1934. In 1936, it was renamed the USS Potomac and served as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential Yacht until his death in 1945.

More than half a million people have visited and sailed aboard the former president's beloved floating white house, the uss potomac, since it opened to the public in the summer of 1995. over a 12-year period, $5 million was spent to restore the 165-foot-long vessel as a memorial to the president who authored the new deal and led the united states during the great depression and the world war ii years. join us aboard this national historic landmark for a cruise on the bay.

Watch the fascinating, colorful history of the USS Potomac.

The USS Potomac Association visitor's center is open:

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Voicemail messages will be responded to on a regular basis by the USS Potomac volunteers.

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There are many ways to support the USS Potomac and help keep history alive, such as one-time donations, volunteering, or becoming a Friend of the USS Potomac.

Schedule Your Event

Picture your family and friends around you to witness the beginning of your life’s greatest adventure on one of the most beautiful wedding venues in the Bay Area. Have your ceremony dockside or while cruising beautiful San Francisco Bay. For information or to schedule your wedding event, call (510) 627-1215 or email: [email protected].

View pictures and videos of the USS Potomac.

Tour of the Presidential Yacht USS Sequoia , Part 1

Gary Silversmith gave a tour of the USS Sequoia , the yacht that served U.S. presidents from Herbert Hoover to Jimmy Carter. Mr. Silversmith,… read more

Gary Silversmith gave a tour of the USS Sequoia , the yacht that served U.S. presidents from Herbert Hoover to Jimmy Carter. Mr. Silversmith, who purchased the National Historic Landmark in 2000, has collected stories about the 104 foot wooden vessel from former captains, crew members, and Secret Service agents. In this part of the program he talked about how he acquired the yacht and gave a tour of the upper deck. Pictures and a clip were also shown. close

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An Inside Look at JFK’s Presidential Yacht, “Honey Fitz” [PHOTOS]

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The former presidential yacht, “Honey Fitz”

With the 50 year anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death upon us, it’s only appropriate that we honor his legacy here on gCaptain by featuring a photo tour of the presidential yacht, “Honey Fitz”.

The 93-foot wooden yacht was originally built in 1931 by Defoe Shipyard in Bay City, Michigan for Sewell Avery, a prominent businessman from Chicago, who mostly used it to cruise around Lake Michigan. The yacht was purchased, or possibly expropriated, from Avery in 1942 by the U.S. government and assigned to the coast guard.

The yacht first gained Presidential status with President Harry S. Truman, who used it mostly as a tender for the much larger, and more lavish, Williamsburg . In all the yacht was used by five U.S. Presidents – Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon – but was most famous for its role as the presidential yacht for John F. Kennedy, who renamed it “Honey Fitz” after his grandfather.

Kennedy is said to have spent some of the happiest times of is life on the Honey Fitz. During he presidency, he would use it extensively to entertain family and close friends, cruising up and down the eastern seaboard from the Potomac River in D.C. to Cape Cod.

The yacht was eventually sold to a private buyer during the Nixon Administration in 1970. Recently, the yacht underwent an extensive, two-year restoration to bring it back to its “Camelot” era glory days it is most known for.

P.S. – Yes, JFK also enjoyed cruising onboard the other presidential yacht, the familiar USS Sequoia, too.

Lone Stateroom:

Wheelhouse:

Dining Room:

President John F. Kennedy with his daughter, Caroline, aboard the Honey Fitz in 1963.

Sources:  http://www.myhoneyfitz.com/

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Privacy Overview

8 Surprising Facts About the Presidential Yacht

By jake rossen | aug 30, 2017.

If you consider a boat to be a suboptimal way of ferrying the President of the United States, you’re not alone. No sitting president has used one for official travel purposes since 1977, when the USS Sequoia was decommissioned. But for a good chunk of the 20th century, the POTUS was able to jump on a yacht and set sail for both recreational and government business, getting a change of scenery without having to hop on a plane. Take a look at a few things you might not have known about this unique—and extinct—political retreat.

1. THE SEQUOIA WASN’T THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL YACHT.

The idea of toting presidents in a floating White House for social engagements dates back to 1893, when the USS Dolphin flew the presidential flag for Grover Cleveland and William McKinley. In 1905, Theodore Roosevelt anointed the USS Mayflower , a luxury steam yacht, that was occupied by three successive presidents until it was decommissioned in 1929. Two other ships were in service before the Sequoia was selected in 1933.

2. IT WAS ORIGINALLY A DECOY SHIP DURING PROHIBITION.

The Sequoia wasn’t custom-built for presidential purposes. Constructed in 1925, the 104-foot-long vessel was originally owned by a Texas oilman and purchased by the U.S. government in 1931. It was used as a decoy ship to intercede rum runners during Prohibition before being rehomed with the U.S. Navy. Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt enjoyed fishing off the ship—in Hoover’s case, so much so that he put a picture of it on the White House’s official 1932 Christmas card. Hoover soon declared it the official presidential yacht in 1933.

3. EACH PRESIDENT CUSTOMIZED IT.

The Sequoia underwent several minor facelifts as each new sitting president decided they wanted a custom yacht experience. Lyndon B. Johnson was so tall that he had to have the shower on board extended so he could bathe comfortably; John F. Kennedy had a king-sized bed installed. An elevator was added to make it wheelchair-accessible for Franklin Roosevelt; Johnson later ripped out the lift and used the space for a wet bar.

4. NIXON LOVED THE BOAT.

Of all the presidents to board the Sequoia , Richard Nixon did so with the greatest frequency and zeal. He reportedly stepped on the ship at least 88 times, sailing to Mount Vernon and insisting staff salute Washington’s tomb. Later, when Watergate began to consume most of his final days in office, he insisted an anti-bug electronic shield be installed in case the ship was being tapped for sound. Nixon also made the decision to resign while on board, mournfully playing “God Bless America” on the piano that Truman had installed.

5. JFK HAD HIS LAST BIRTHDAY PARTY THERE.

On what turned out to be his last birthday, John F. Kennedy devoted the night of May 29, 1963 to a celebration on the Sequoia . Just 24 guests were invited , and only three Secret Service members were on board—the rest populated security boats trailing behind.

6. ELVIS BOUGHT ONE.

For Franklin D. Roosevelt, the USS Potomac was his ship of choice: The 165-foot-long ship was big enough to accommodate more Secret Service staff and was in use from 1936 to 1945. After passing through other hands, Elvis Presley decided he wanted to make sure the ship was preserved and bought it at auction in 1964 for $55,000. The King immediately donated it to Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, where it continued to change hands until being designated a National Historical Landmark in 1987.

7. JIMMY CARTER SOLD IT OFF.

By 1977, the Sequoia had been in service for over four decades, and the cost to maintain it was significant: $800,000 a year. Because Jimmy Carter had made campaign promises to cut extraneous expenses, he had little choice but to trim the fat by decommissioning the yacht. The Sequoia was sold off for $236,000. In 1999, a collector of presidential memorabilia bought it for nearly $2 million and began renting it out to visitors for $10,000.

8. IT BECAME FULL OF RACCOON POOP.

Once the Sequoia entered the private sector, its seaworthiness became a very costly pursuit. In 2016, a judge ruled that FE Partners, which restores historic ships, could have the vessel free of charge after it was declared to be rotting and infested with raccoons while idling in a Virginia shipyard: The animals reportedly pooped on presidential carpets. The group hopes to restore the Sequoia and have it back on the water sometime in the next few years.

Courtesy of the U.S. Navy archives (1939).

The Sequoia: The Floating White House

by Bob Cerullo

August 31, 2021

Emily Roebling Cadwalader was the granddaughter of John Roebling, the man who designed and built the Brooklyn Bridge, and she was wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of even the very wealthy. She was a socialite, philanthropist and passionate about her yachts .In 1923, she and her husband wealthy banker, Richard Cadwalader, commissioned John Trumpy to design a lavish 85-foot yacht they named Sequoia . Trumpy designed the Sequoia to cruise the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays in summer. In the winter, it was to sail down the Intercoastal Waterway to Florida to show off the couple’s enormous wealth.

 However, Emily Cadwalader soon concluded her new yacht was not big enough or grand enough to truly represent their colossal wealth and position. Richard Cadwalader was a member of the prestigious New York Yacht Club. Emily simply had to have a bigger yacht. In just a year from having taken delivery on the Sequoia, she commissioned Trumpy to build her a bigger and grander 104-foot yacht to be named the Sequoia II . Trumpy was chosen because of his growing reputation for building luxury yachts with shallow draft which made Trumpy yachts ideal for the Chesapeake Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway. The Sequoia II had a draft of four and half feet and a beam of 19 feet. The yacht was built at the Mathis Yacht Building Company in Camden, New Jersey. The Sequoia II was delivered in 1925 and cost $200,000 ($3 million in today’s dollars). Even the brand-new Sequoia II did not make Emily Cadwalader happy for long. Within a year she ordered a new 195-foot yacht. Still not pleased with the size of that yacht, she ordered a 265-foot yacht. In 1932, she bought an even larger yacht, the 446-foot yacht named the Savarona . At the time, it was hailed as the largest private yacht in the world.

In 1928, the Sequoia II was sold to a Galveston oil tycoon named William Dunning. Dunning kept the Sequoia II at the Corinthian Yacht Club in New York City. He cruised extensively from Maine to Cuba and Mexico City. With his business damaged by the stock market crash, Dunning sold the Sequoia II to the United States Department of Commerce in March 1931 for a price of $48,860. Prohibition was the law of the land at that time, and the Sequoia II was used as a decoy yacht or inspection vessel to catch unsuspecting rumrunners who cruised the Chesapeake offering illegal liquor to yachts and other boats.

Over the years, there were several Naval ships that were unofficially used as presidential yachts, such as the USS Dispatch , the USS Dolphin , and the USS Sylph . In 1921, the USS Mayflower became the

Courtesy of U.S. Navy archives.

President Hoover enjoyed using the Sequoia in the 1930s. It became the official presidential yacht at the request of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Secretary of the Navy’s yacht. Built in 1896, she was 318 feet long. Originally, she was a yacht then converted to a warship. In 1905, the USS Mayflower was converted back to a yacht for the use of President Theodore Roosevelt. She was used by Presidents William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge for recreation as well as to hold presidential meetings. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover had the USS Mayflower decommissioned to save money. In 1931, Hoover called upon the Department of Commerce to put the Sequoia II at his disposal. Hoover used the Sequoia II on April 25, 1931, for a trip between Washington, D.C and Cape Henry, Virginia. Hoover became very fond of the Sequoia II and even used a photo of it on his 1932 Christmas card. He took a lot of criticism at a time when many Americans were in bread lines.

After his inauguration on March 4,1933, President Franklin Roosevelt spread the word around various government departments that, if it was available, he wanted the Sequoia II as his official presidential yacht. On March 23, 1933, the yacht became the official presidential yacht. Roosevelt liked to fish for perch on the Potomac River. On one of his fishing trips, he came by limousine to Deltaville, Virginia and met the yacht Sequoia II at the wharf at the end of North End road. Roosevelt liked to fish the wrecks in the Chesapeake Bay. Because Franklin D. Roosevelt was wheelchair bound, he had an elevator installed. Oddly, Lyndon Johnson had the elevator removed, and a bar installed in its place.

Roosevelt’s first invited guest was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. The president liked to cruise with cabinet members, foreign dignitaries and close friends. Joseph Kennedy, Sr., was one of those friends. The Sequoia II served President Roosevelt for nine years. In 1942, the Sequoia II was transferred to the US Coast Guard, and her name was changed to the Sequoia .

President Truman invited British Prime Minister Clement Atlee, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King and US Secretary of State James Byrnes for a cruise on Armistice Day, November 11,1945. President Eisenhower utilized the Sequoia rarely and, essentially, only for official business. Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of British Defense, was one of his few guests in 1959.

Photo courtesy of Robert Knudsen

John F. Kennedy aboard his beloved Manitou.

President John F. Kennedy loved boats. He often sailed a US Government owned sailboat named the Manitou . During his presidency, much to the chagrin of the Secret Service, he sailed the Manitou himself and enjoyed cruising on the Sequoia and another presidential yacht, the Honey Fitz . Kennedy’s speech writer and aide, Theodore Sorensen, said, “On board either the family or the presidential cruiser the president read history or biography or fiction, chatted with family and friends, waved at passing boats, watched local sailing races and enjoyed the distance between himself and the Secret Service.” Kennedy celebrated his 46th birthday on the Sequoia .

According to Jack Valenti, a former aide to Lyndon Johnson, “Lyndon Johnson used yacht trips on the Sequoia to hash out Vietnam strategy and lobby legislators to support his Great Society domestic reforms.” Johnson had the top deck modified so she could accommodate more people. “The  Sequoia  was a rostrum from which he was trying to persuade congressmen and senators.” Richard Nixon used the Sequoia more than just about any of his predecessors. The 37th president reportedly made as many as 100 trips aboard the yacht, including one in which he met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to negotiate the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). When the pressure from Watergate got too heavy, Nixon also used the Sequoia  as a hideout from the controversies of the scandal. It was on one of the final cruises in August 1974 that embattled President Richard Nixon reportedly informed his family of his decision to resign as President of the United States. After telling them, he retired to the ship’s saloon, quaffed a glass of scotch, and played  God Bless America  on the piano.

President Ford felt that his cabinet members and his children should be able to enjoy the Sequoia. Ford entertained Japanese Emperor Hirohito, USSR Deputy Prime Minister Ignaty Novikov and other international statesmen on the Sequoia .

The Sequoia cost $250,000 a year to operate. President Carter, in a cost cutting effort, and to fulfill a campaign promise, ordered her sold in 1977. Carter told his Secretary of Defense, “Despite its distinguished career, I feel that the Presidential yacht Sequoia is no longer needed.”

The Sequoia was eventually sold and used as a charter party yacht in Washington, D.C., commanding $10,000 for a one-day charter. During that period, she had a varied history, from being used as a charter boat for political and corporate events to touring as an historical exhibit. The Sequoia was berthed at the dock at Hain’s Point in the Washington Channel for seven years. She was available to President Reagan but was unused by him. In 1984, the Sequoia embarked on a six-thousand-mile odyssey cruise to raise money for her owners at that time, the Presidential Yacht Trust. During that time her maintenance was at times adequate and at other times dubious. Eventually, she wound up at Deagle’s Boat Yard in Deltaville, Virginia and was in much need of repair. Legal problems ensued, and for several years she remained on dry land in Deltaville while the elements advanced her deterioration and raccoons nested onboard.

Courtesy of Wolfe House and Building Movers.

USS Sequoia onboard the barge.

Just when any hope of saving the Sequoia seemed totally lost, she was ordered by the court to be turned over to an investment group with the stipulation that she would fully be restored. The price ordered by the court was $0.00. Restoration was awarded to the French & Webb Inc. in Belfast, Maine. Since the Sequoia had deteriorated to the point where she was no longer seaworthy, Wolfe House and Building Movers was given the Herculean job of moving the Sequoia from dry land onto a massive barge for the trip to Maine.

When the Sequoia arrived at Belfast, Maine in October of 2019, she was positioned in the French and Webb yard. Eventually, a building will be constructed to cover the Sequoia . There will also be a viewing area where visitors can watch the work in progress. Todd French of French and Webb was quoted in the January 2020 issue of Soundings Magazine . He said, “The public is connected to it. We’ve had so many people show up and look reverentially at this project, it’s like people are just in awe, taking pictures. It’s like they’re coming to church.” The restoration will take about three years at which time the Sequoia will once again cruise the waters of the Potomac River.

It is strangely ironic that the Sequoia , which was not grand enough nor large enough to please wealthy socialite Emily Roebling Cadwalader, became the floating White House and was used by five presidents of the United States and visited by future presidents and by countless international celebrities. It is perhaps the most important historical yacht still in existence. The Sequoia was designated as a National Historic Landmark on December 23, 1987.

In his book, Sequoia, Presidential Yacht, Captain Giles M. Kelly, USNR (ret) recounts his years in command of the Sequoia. There is a great video of the Sequoia being loaded onto a barge at the Chesapeake Bay Marine Railway. See USS Sequoia - Presidential Yacht Relocated on YouTube

2017 The House & Home Magazine

clock This article was published more than  47 years ago

All the President's Yachts

When President Carter announced yesterday that he considered the expense of maintaining a Presidential yacht "unjustified and unnecessary," and had ordered the Sequoia to be sold at public auction, he joined a long line of Presidents of the United States who have condemned as wasteful luxuries the yachts of their predecessors. ordered the U.S.S. Mayflower -- which had been used by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and William Harding -- to be de-commissioned, because he considered it an unnecessary "luxury" at a maintenance cost of $300,000 a year.

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced that he was retiring the Williamsburg, President Harry Truman's yacht, because he considered it a "symbol of needless luxury" and it cost $600,000 a year to maintain.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he "had no requirement for the use of" the Honey Fitz or the Patrick J., the two Presidential yachts used by President John F. Kennedy, and wanted them retired, at a savings of $10,000 a year plus crew expenses.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon ordered that the two yachts used by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson be sold at public auction, to save the maintenance costs of $200,000 a year.

So with all that selling and saving, how come each of those luxury-hating Presidents, and every President in between, has passed hours cruising on the Potomac River or beyond in his very own Presidential yacht?

In fact, the U.S. Navy has operated Presidential yachts -- often two of them per President -- during every administration since Rutherford B. Hayes.

The explanation of abolishing and simultaneously employing Presidential yachts is that a variety of vessels have been re-assigned, borrowed and returned, and re-named by Presidents.

The Sequoia, which is the yacht President Carter is getting rid of as a luxury, was first used as a Presidential yacht by President Hoover, after he got rid of the Mayflower as an unnecessary luxury. Between then and now, it has gone back and forth between the White House and the Pentagon -- where it was used as the Secretary of the Navy's yacht -- like a ferry boat.

Another aspect of the yacht situation which tends to rock back and forth is the amount of savings to the taxpayer when a yacht is taken out of Presidential service. The White House has said that there will be several thousand dollars saved when the Sequoia goes, but that depends on whether you calculate into the cost the salaries of Navy and Coast Guard people assigned to the yacht. In figures given by previous Presidents, "maintenance" sometimes includes and sometimes does not, service salaries which must be paid anyway.

Also, almost every President has had one or more yachts refurbished at several thousand dollars' cost, although President Kennedy's press secretary, Pierre Salinger, once snapped at reporters that he hardly thought it cost much to paint the name "Honey Fitz" over the name "Barbara Anne" on President Eisenhower's yacht.

Changing names, traditionally considered to bring bad luck to a vessel is another Presidential habit.

The Sequoia, named "Savarona" by its original owners in 1924, was named "Sequoia" in 1928 when purchased by a Texan who hoped that his new oil company "would grow like a California redwood." That name has remained unchanged.

But when President Eisenhower got rid of the Williamsburg as a luxury, he acquired two other Navy yachts, the Lenore II and the Margie, and rechristened them the Barbara Anne and the Susie E., after his granddaughters.

Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty, also tried every hard to change the name "yacht" to "cabin cruiser," and corrected reporters who gave that rich-sounding name to the luxurious, 92-foot craft.

During the Kennedy Administration, the Barbara Anne became the Honey Fitz, and the Susie E. became the Patrick J., the new names being for President Kennedy's grandfathers. At the beginning of his administration, Kennedy announced that he had use for only one yacht but the Kennedy family did, in fact, make use of both.

After President Johnson announced that he had no use for either of the two yachts, he did, in fact, use the Honey Fitz, although he did not rename her.

Before President Nixon announced that he was getting rid of the two yachts as needless luxuries, he renamed them after his daughters, so that the Honey Fitz became the Patricia and the Patrick J. became the Julie.

It was immediately after having them sold that President Nixon again made the Sequoia the Presidential yacht, which she had been for Presidents Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She had also been used for private and state entertaining during other administrations.

But the most intense presidential use came when the Watergate scandal was breaking. President Nixon spent more and more time on the yacht as his administration drew to a close. Yacht records show that there were 53 Presidential trips made on the Sequoia in 1973 and 1974, in contrast to 8 to 12 a year from 1968 to 1972. (The records for 1969 are missing.) President Ford made four trips on her.

And where does the Sequoia go from here.

Well, the Secretary of Defense will be offering her for sale, and the highest bidder can do what he wants with her.

The Williamsburg, President Truman's yacht, served two years as a floating restaurant in New Jersey, and is now in Philadelphia, being refurbished with Truman memorabilia, and scheduled to open as a private club called the Commodore Club within the next month.

When the Patricia and the Julie were offered for sale, President Nixon tried to stipulate that they could be used "for personal use only" and "not be made into gambling casinos or for some other notorious use."

When not a single bid had been submitted, the White House withdrew that condition to the sale. The Patricia (formerly the Honey Fitz, formerly the Barbara Anne, formerly the Lenore II) operates as a charter boat out of Greenwich, Conn.

Her name is now The President.

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Former US Presidential yacht Sequoia arrives in Maryland to resume halted restoration

The famous former US presidential yacht  Sequoia  is resuming her long-awaited restoration at a new location. On Monday 30 October the 31.9-metre historic vessel arrived at the Richardson Maritime Museum in Cambridge, Maryland, covered in shrinkwrap and in the same condition as she was in 2019.

Sequoia has spent the past four years on the hard in Belfast, Maine where she was scheduled to undergo repairs with French & Webb. In a press release, the Richardson Maritime Museum said it had been determined that an enclosed, indoor facility was needed for work to commence, which was the reason for the move (as well as general delays as a result of COVID-19).

Now, it is anticipated that the full renovation may take up to five years and require the skills of up to 20 shipwrights. Sequoia will then become part of the revival of the Richardson Maritime Centre – with a building to house the restoration being considered as part of those plans.

"[Her] permanent home will be on the water," owner Michael Cantor added, "but Cambridge could be its home for repairs and refitting." Cantor had previously suggested that Sequoia be based in Washington D.C and used to teach presidential history.

Built in 1925 by John Mathis & Company, Sequoia was originally owned by banker Richard Cadwalader before being sold to Texan businessman William Dunning. She was sold again in 1931 to the United States government.

From then, her history became closely entwined with some of the most famous US presidents – John F Kennedy spent his last birthday on board while Herbert Hoover used  Sequoia  to visit his mother in Florida. Franklin D. Roosevelt, meanwhile, had a wheelchair lift installed so that he could use her as an operational base during World War II.

Richard Nixon was particularly fond of  Sequoia , taking more than 80 trips on board, including the night before he decided to resign in 1974.

Following her presidential reign,  Sequoia  was made available for charter in Washington, D.C. But the yacht was hauled out at the Chesapeake Boat Works shipyard in Deltaville, Virginia in December 2014 and from there, began to fall into disrepair. In the years that followed, she was at the centre of a drawn-out legal battle which was eventually resolved in 2016 . 

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It sure looks like Mark Zuckerberg is taking a brand new superyacht out to celebrate his 40th birthday

• It seems as if Mark Zuckerberg will celebrate his 40th birthday on the  megayacht, Launchpad .
• The yachting world has speculated for months that the Meta CEO is the owner of the vessel.
• Now, both the boat and Zuckerberg's private jet have landed in Panama.

All signs point to Mark Zuckerberg celebrating his 40th birthday on what many speculate is his brand-new superyacht Launchpad .

The boating world has been buzzing about Launchpad — a 118-meter yacht built by the Dutch shipyard Feadship — for months, with rumors swirling that her owner is none other than the Meta CEO. But in the yachting world, where privacy is paramount , no party would confirm her owner.

"It is Feadship's standard policy to never divulge any information about our yachts with reference to ownership, costs, or delivery, etc," Feadship, the ship's builder, wrote to Business Insider in March. "Whether it is an 18-meter Feadship from the 1960s or a 118-meter Feadship from the 21st century, we do not share private information."

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Representatives for Zuckerberg did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

Now there's even more evidence: The megayacht arrived in Panama on Monday, making her way there from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she's predominantly been moored since she made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic in March, according to public ship-tracking data. Wingman, the support superyacht that he is suspected to have purchased with Launchpad, made the journey with her.

Zuckerberg's plane also landed in Panama on Monday, per a private jet tracker, and if his Instagram is any indication, he was on board.

Putting two and two together — along with the many other clues linking Zuckerberg to the yacht — we can surmise that the Meta CEO is likely kicking off his new decade aboard his new toy.

Little is known about the luxury vessel, which was said to have been built for a sanctioned Russian businessman before it was handed over to the Dutch government, which served as a middleman for the purchase. Her final purchase price is unknown, but it's safe to say a yacht of that size from that shipyard would cost nine figures upfront and six figures a year to maintain.

The few photos of Launchpad available on the industry site SuperYacht Times show there appears to be a helipad and a swimming pool on her main deck.

A vessel of her size can typically sleep dozens of guests and crewmembers and likely has an expansive gym (where Zuckerberg could practice his jiu-jitsu), a spa, a movie room, and a garage to fit plenty of toys like his viral hydrofoil .

Zuckerberg's name was first connected to Launchpad in December when reports swirled that he visited Feadship's shipyard in the Netherlands. By March, yachting blogs like eSysman SuperYachts and Autoevolution suggested he officially snagged the boat at a $300 million price tag. Launchpad also bears the flag of the Marshall Islands, a US territory that is commonplace for American buyers to register their ships.

We will never know for sure whose name is on her title, so unless Zuckerberg confirms he's Launchpad's owner, we will have to wait for an invitation to Zuck's birthday party to confirm.

Watch: The scariest things OceanGate's CEO said about deep-sea diving

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