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