A CENTURY OF PRESIDENTIAL YACHTS

In their wake, all of the presidential yachts leave no shortage of great stories.

Starting with President Chester A. Arthur, presidential yachts include the USS Despatch (1880 – 1891), USS Dolphin (1893 – 1897), USS Sylph (1902 – 1921), USS Mayflower (1905 – 1929), USS Sequoia (1929 – 1936; and 1969 – 1977), USS Potomac (1936 – 1945), and USS Williamsburg (1945 – 1953). Some of the presidential yacht service dates alternate, overlap, and resist lining up in perfect succession. Some of the yachts officially serve the Secretary of the Navy, but end up hosting presidents and world leaders. 

Names change also: Eisenhower’s Barbara Anne and Susie E  become Kennedy’s Honey Fitz and Patrick J.  In 1969, President Nixon renames the vessels Patricia and the Julie, sells both, then recommissions the Sequoia, which had previously served Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt.

On April 1, 1977, as President Carter orders the sale of the Sequoia and brings a century of commissioned presidential yachts to its end, the Washington Post runs an informative and amusing piece by Judith Martin, “All the President’s Yachts.”

David McCullough’s Pulitzer-winning biography, “Truman,” and “Counsel to the President: A Memoir,” by Clark Clifford and Richard Holbrooke both recollect President Truman’s vacations, with cabinet and inner staff, aboard USS Williamsburg. 

The USS Potomac, the only known presidential yacht to visit Marina del Rey, has an especially colorful history that includes King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England, FDR’s secret visit to meet Winston Churchill, multiple Elvis sightings, a drug bust, seizure by U.S. Customs, its sinking, its recovery by the U.S. Navy. Alive and well, today you can visit the USS Potomac in Oakland, California. 

Originally the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Electra, the vessel is recommissioned in 1936 as a presidential yacht, with its new name, the USS Potomac. 

A presidential vacation cruise aboard the Potomac is the publicized cover-up story for a secret meeting between FDR and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which takes place in Newfoundland in August 1941— pre-Pearl Harbor. 

With Roosevelt’s death in 1945, the Williamsburg replaces the Potomac as Harry S. Truman’s presidential yacht. From 1946 to 1960, Potomac serves as a Maryland Tidewater Fisheries Commission enforcement boat, then becomes a private ferry between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. 

Potomac comes to the West Coast in 1962, and in August 1963, opens as a tourist attraction in King Harbor, Redondo Beach, California. 

Months later, in January 1964, singer Elvis Presley purchases the ship, then donates it as a gift to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which then sells the vessel to a private party for $65,000. 

The Venice Vanguard reports on December 16, 1965 that the USS Potomac, previously in San Pedro, is towed into Marina del Rey with arrangements to stay three months at “Forty – Four Anchorage” on Bali Way.

Longtime Playa del Rey area resident Tom McMahon recalls his family’s boat in Basin F of the newly constructed and near-empty Marina del Rey harbor during his youth,  and a rowing expedition along the main channel to see the USS Potomac docked at its nearby basin.

Potomac changes ownership again in 1970. In 1979, it is towed to Stockton, California. A year later, in 1980, it is towed to Pier 26 in San Francisco.  Involved in a drug bust, the U.S. Customs Service seizes the vessel, tows it to a nearby naval base, where, in 1981, the vessel sinks. 

The U.S. Navy refloats the submerged Potomac. The Port of Oakland, California, purchases the vessel for $15,000. 

In 1983, a non-profit association is created to restore and operate the USS Potomac. FDR’s son, James Roosevelt, with the help of a $2.5 million federal grant, is involved with the restoration. In 1990, the USS Potomac is designated as a National Historic Landmark. In 1995, the USS Potomac, operated by the Association for the Preservation of the Presidential Yacht Potomac, opens to the public. The website, usspotomac.org, offers more photos, history, a short video, and information on visiting the yacht.

— David W. Maury, updated April 15, 2024. Note, an earlier version of this article stated, “On October 7, 1966, The Evening Vanguard reports that Paramount Pictures Is filming the motion picture, ‘Easy Come, Easy Go,’ starring Elvis Presley, at Windward Boat Yards on Fiji Way in Marina del Rey.” We can’t confirm that the USS Potomac was included in “Easy Come, Easy Go.”

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt with George VI and Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, on the USS Potomac (1939)

USCG Cutter ELECTRA (commissioned 1934). Recommissioned as a presidential yacht in 1936, the ELECTRA becomes the USS POTOMAC

Former presidential yacht USS POTOMAC, after sinking into San Francisco Bay in (March 1981).

USS WILLIAMSBURG at port (1947)

USS DOLPHIN (1893): Commissioned in 1885, USS DOLPHIN alternated service with USS SYLPH and USS MAYFLOWER, including the presidencies of Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Commissioned as a presidential yacht in 1898, USS SYLPH served presidents McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, alternating partially with USS MAYFLOWER and USS DOLPHIN.

President Taft boards the presidential yacht, USS MAYFLOWER (1912). USS MAYFLOWER served Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, and Coolidge.

USS DESPATCH (1889)

President Dwight D Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower celebrate their 42nd wedding anniversary aboard presidential yacht Barbara Anne (1958)

Admiral Foote Sellers, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aboard the presidential yacht USS SEQUOIA (1935). Commissioned in 1929, USS SEQUOIA served presidents Herbert Hoover and FDR. Decommissioned as a presidential yacht in 1936, SEQUOIA continued service as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy’s vessels, hosting meetings for Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. Recommissioned as a presidential yacht in 1969, USS SEQUOIA served Presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1977, the Carter administration decommissioned the USS SEQUOIA.