By James Heinz

Vessels built in the Great Lakes usually live out their lives on the lakes, usually only leaving to be scrapped. But this is the story of four boats that sailed the Great Lakes and left the Lakes to become presidential yachts. At least three still exist.

WMHS files show that on June 30, 1934, the Manitowoc Ship Building Company launched the Coast Guard cutter ELECTRA. She was completed on October 26, 1934.  She was steel, 165 feet long, 25 feet wide, drew 8.5 feet of water, and displaced 367 gross tons.  She was built to function as a submarine chaser and had apparently originally been intended to enforce Prohibition laws.  She could make 13 knots, had a crew of 45, and carried one 3 inch deck gun. She cost $1.5 million.

On November 8, 1935, ELECTRA was taken over by the US Navy and designated AG-25.  On January 30, 1936, she was renamed USS POTOMAC, converted into a presidential yacht, and commissioned into the US Navy.

Wikipedia describes the conversion as: “There were approximately $60,000 in upgrades made while converting the ship into a presidential yacht, to make the vessel wheelchair-accessible and more accommodating. These upgrades included the conversion of the aft smokestack to a false one, a new salon, installation of brass fixtures, the presidential stateroom and bath, three guest cabins and teak decks. Additions to the fantail included a vast leather settee, patio furniture and bulletproof glass. In the false smokestack, there was an elevator with a pulley system designed so that President Roosevelt could transport himself to the boat deck. The fantail couch is designed so that each sitting party has their legs completely stretched out when sitting back and the president could sit equally as his guests with his legs supported. An antiaircraft machine gun was installed and mounted when the president was on board. Ship ballast was added to the vessel to account for these upgrades. However, the ship still rolled as far as 48 degrees in rough waters, causing many a guest to turn to the rail. The president, being the sailor he was, was affected little.”

POTOMAC was chosen as a presidential yacht because of her steel construction.  Her predecessor, USS SEQUOIA, was made of wood and deemed a fire hazard.  As a child, President Franklin Roosevelt had seen an aunt burn to death and was not comfortable on a wooden boat.  POTOMAC was also much larger and more seaworthy than SEQUOIA, even if she did roll 48 degrees.

FDR was one of our two most sea loving presidents.  He had been an enthusiastic small sailboat sailor, and had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I. POTOMAC gave FDR a chance to unwind with his favorite hobbies: fishing, stamp collecting, and reading detective novels.  It gave him a chance to escape the stifling heat of summertime Washington DC, and to reduce his workload.

According to Whitehousehistory.org, “During a March 29, 1941 address to participants of annual Jackson Day fundraising dinners, FDR said, “I am sitting in the little cabin of the little ship POTOMAC, in the harbor of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after a day of sunshine out in the Gulf Stream . . . I try to get away a couple of times a year on these short trips on salt water. . . Even when I go to Hyde Park or to Warm Springs, the White House office, the callers, and the telephones all follow me. But at sea the radio messages and the occasional pouch of mail (delivered by seaplane) reduce official work to not more than two or three hours a day.”

In addition to promoting presidential rest and relaxation, several historical events occurred aboard the POTOMAC.  It is rumored that the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was signed aboard the ship. In 1939 the King and Queen of England made the first visit of English royalty to the United States, and FDR and the royal couple went down the Potomac on the POTOMAC to Mount Vernon. FDR made one of his famous Fireside Chats from POTOMAC on March 28, 1941. During World War II the yacht would host the royal families of Norway and the Netherlands.

Perhaps POTOMAC’s greatest moment in history came when she participated in a Presidential deception operation in 1941. On August 3 1941, FDR boarded POTOMAC at New London, Conn., and sailed to Martha’s Vineyard.  She anchored next to the heavy cruiser USS AUGUSTA, which was already there. In the early morning hours of August 5^th, FDR and his party secretly transferred to the AUGUSTA which then weighed anchor.

USS AUGUSTA transported FDR to Newfoundland, Canada for a secret meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had arrived on a British battleship.  This meeting, called Operation Riviera, led to the signing of the Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic Charter established the goals of the United States and Great Britain after World War II, and led to the dismantling of the British Empire and the establishment of the United Nations, among other monumental events.

Meanwhile, POTOMAC carried on as if FDR was still aboard.  It continued to fly the Presidential flag and a Secret Service agent who resembled FDR from a distance and who could imitate FDR’s mannerisms impersonated FDR. Press releases were made from POTOMAC to persuade the public that the president was still aboard.  The deception was successful and continued until USS AUGUSTA returned FDR to POTOMAC on August 14.

FDR’s successor Harry Truman did not use POTOMAC because as a Missouri landlubber he was not comfortable aboard a ship that could roll 48 degrees and which could not accommodate a grand piano for Truman to play.  The Navy transferred POTOMAC back to the Coast Guard, which decommissioned her on May 23, 1946.

POTOMAC was turned over to the Maryland Fisheries Commission as a fisheries enforcement boat. The funnel with the elevator was removed and still exists as a memorial in Cambridge, Maryland. She was sold in 1960 and had several private owners until January 1964, when yet another King entered her life: the King of Rock n’ Roll.

Elvis Presley bought the ship for $50,000 and tried to donate it to the March of Dimes, which declined to accept it.  Elvis then donated POTOMAC to St. Jude’s Hospital, which sold the vessel for $65,000. POTOMAC went out of documentation in 1970, was seized by the federal government as part of a drug bust, and eventually sank.  Salvaged by the US Navy, the ship was sold in 1980 to the Port of Oakland for $15,000.

In 1983, POTOMAC was turned over to the non-profit Association for the Preservation of the Presidential Yacht POTOMAC. Headed by FDR’s son James Roosevelt, the Association has restored the ship to its former glory. Docked in San Francisco, she is open for tours and used on cruises. In June 2011 scenes from the 2012 movie “The Master” starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix were filmed aboard her.

Other than FDR, our most sea loving president must have been John F. Kennedy.  The entire Kennedy family had enjoyed sailing small boats off the Kennedy compound on Hyannis Port. JFK also commanded a PT boat in World War II.  And as president and a true lover of the sea, JFK had two yachts at his disposal. And the first one had a connection to FDR and POTOMAC.

The yacht LENORE was built in 1931 by the Defoe Shipyard in Bay City, Michigan.  She was a motor yacht made of wood, was 92 feet long, 16 feet wide, and drew 5 feet of water. She was built for Sewell Avery, then head of the Montgomery Ward department store and mail order company, which was sort of the Walmart of its day.  Avery named it after his daughter LENORE, who died at age 4.  Avery used her to cruise the waters off his estate in the Les Chaneaux islands in Lake Huron.  The Les Chaneaux islands are a group of 36 small islands that stretch for 12 miles just offshore of the southeastern tip of the Upper Michigan peninsula, on the north side of the Straits of Mackinac.  LENORE was also used to pick up guests who arrived by train at Mackinac City.

Like many businessmen of the time, Avery hated FDR.  Avery opposed just about every Depression era policy of the Roosevelt administration. He continued to oppose government policies during World War II, which led to the government seizing control of Montgomery Ward and a famous photo of Avery being carried out of his office by two burly Military Police officers.

This may explain why in 1942 Avery’s yacht LENORE was commandeered by the US Government for use in the war effort.  The yacht was used as a picket ship off the Atlantic Coast and was later used to train submarine crews.  In 1945 she was used as a tender for the presidential yachts POTOMAC and WILLIAMSBURG during the Truman administration.

President Eisenhower retired the WILLIAMSBURG and spent $200,000 overhauling the LENORE. He renamed the boat BARBARA ANNE after his granddaughter.  She was rarely used by Eisenhower except in the summers of 1957 and 1958 when it ferried him to and from the golf course in Newport, Rhode Island.

On March 17, 1962, the yacht was renamed the HONEY FITZ, after JFK’s maternal grandfather John Francis Fitzgerald, former Mayor of Boston and US Congressman. After JFK’s death President Johnson kept the name and used it in preference to another presidential yacht, USS SEQUOIA.

President Nixon renamed the boat TRICIA or PATRICIA after his daughter. It was briefly used to take hospitalized Vietnam veterans on tours before being sold at auction for $52,500 in December 1971.  Like the POTOMAC she passed through a series of private owners but deteriorated over time until restored.

One presidential yacht that gets little attention is the MARGIE.  She was a wooden motor yacht built by the Fisher Boat Works of Detroit, Mich., in 1941 as the Del Lar for the vice president of the company, L. P. Fisher. She was 64 feet long and 14.5 feet wide. She had a dining room, main lounge, and an after deck that could be used as a sundeck, as well as three cabins with a total of eight bunks.

She was obtained by the US government in 1942 for the Coast Guard and transferred to the Navy in 1945. She was named MARGIE in honor of President Truman’s daughter Margaret and was used by Mrs. Truman on cruises on the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.  President Eisenhower renamed her SUSIE after one of his granddaughters and she was made available for use by Vice President Richard Nixon and Cabinet members.

JFK renamed her PATRICK J. to honor his paternal grandfather. She was taken to Hyannis port in 1963. President Nixon renamed the boat JULIE in honor of his other daughter.  The boat was taken to Key Biscayne, Florida, where Nixon kept his winter White House. She was sold at auction to a private owner for $43,227 in December 1971. I cannot discover what happened to her

According to the New York Times, both the TRICIA and the JULIE were sold because Richard Nixon felt that their combined upkeep of $200,000 a year was too much money to spend.

The previous three yachts were all built on the Great Lakes and all of them were powerboats. The final presidential yacht was a sailboat that was not built on the Lakes but served our only sailboat president.

The sailing yacht MANITOU was built in 1937 at the M. M. Davis and Son shipyard in Solomons Island, Maryland.  She was design #99 by the naval architects Sparkman and Stephens.  According to Wikipedia: “Their designs have won most of the major international yacht races such as the America’s Cup, for several decades.” Sparkman and Stephens have a Wisconsin connection.  During World War II they designed the famous amphibious truck known as the DUKW, or “duck”, the same DUKWs used in Wisconsin Dells to this day.

MANITOU was designed as a racing sailboat. She was a Marconi rigged yawl. Wikipedia tells us: “Marconi rig is a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. The rig consists of a triangular sail set aft of the mast with its mainsail raised to the top of the mast. A yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast positioned abaft (behind) the rudder stock, or in some instances, very close to the rudder stock.”

MANITOU displaced 27 tons.  She was 62 feet long and 13.8 feet wide and drew 8.6 feet of water. Her main mast was 81 feet high and carried 1,778 feet of sail.  She required a crew of 5 or 6. She was made of wood, with teak decking and mahogany planks on oak frames for her hull. She was named for the Manitou passage, which separates Lake Michigan’s North and South Manitou Islands from the Michigan mainland.

MANITOU was commissioned by businessman James R. Lowe supposedly to win a specific race. Wikipedia informs us: “The Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac is a 333-mile annual yacht race starting in Lake Michigan off Chicago, Illinois, and ending in Lake Huron off Mackinac Island, Michigan. The “Mac” (as it is known) was first run in 1898 and is the oldest annual freshwater distance race in the world. It hosts several hundred competitors each year and over 3,000 sailors.”

In 1938 MANITOU won the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac.  She raced in the cruising division and beat all previous times.  She placed a close second the following year.

Carrying on the Sparkman and Stephens tradition, in 1940 and 1941 MANITOU won the Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race, one of the longest freshwater races in the world. Started in 1925, in 1940 and 1941 the race was 290 miles long.

At this point, the history of the MANITOU becomes unclear.  Lowe sold her but exactly when or to whom cannot be determined. In 1955 the boat was donated by someone to the US Coast Guard Academy for use as a sail training vessel. The Coast Guard continues sail training for officer cadets.  They use the 295 foot long barque rigged tall ship USCG EAGLE for sail training today.

My request to the office of the Historian of the Coast Guard for more information on MANITOU garnered this response: “Surprisingly, we do not have much on this vessel.”

What is known is that young Senator John Kennedy spotted MANITOU while she was moored at Annapolis.  After his election his naval aide drew up a list of potential sailboats and Kennedy chose MANITOU.  MANITOU had to be modified to carry the extensive communication equipment that a President in the Nuclear Age requires. In addition, a bathtub was installed.

Kennedy, like FDR, enjoyed relaxing on the water. According to Whitehousehistory.org: “John F. Kennedy’s hours on the water were far less stressful. Here’s an account from Kennedy aide Theodore Sorensen: ‘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’ who trailed him on an escort vessel.”

JFK once tried to race a friend’s sailboat with MANITOU but the Secret Service stopped the other boat when a collision appeared imminent. Kennedy also had another reason to enjoy being on a boat with just his friends and no Secret Service killjoys.

JFK had an eye for beautiful sailboats and beautiful women, and he is reported to have frequently combined his passions by entertaining beautiful women aboard his beautiful sailboat.  One of those women is said to have been Marilyn Monroe.

After Kennedy’s death MANITOU apparently sat unused until 1968 when she was donated to a school for seamanship that specialized in taking poor children on cruises.  The boat passed through several private owners until 2010 she was sold to a group of four owners who refitted her and took her to the French Riviera, where she still sails today.

President Carter disposed of the last presidential yacht during his administration.

In American, anyone can grow up to be President, and any boat from the Great Lakes can grow up to be a Presidential yacht.

Photo at top of page: POTOMAC dated August 17, 1941.

Other Photo: 

Photo credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.

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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.