USS Sequoia (presidential yacht)

USS Sequoia in Washington Marina in 2008 Sequoia in Washington Marina in 2008
Career
Name:	USS Sequoia
Namesake:	Sequoyah
Builder:	Mathis Yacht Building Co., Camden, New Jersey
Cost:	$200,000
Laid down:	1925
Launched:	1926
Acquired:	by purchase, 24 March 1931
Commissioned:	25 March 1933
Decommissioned:	16 November 1933
Recommissioned:	1 April 1935
Decommissioned:	27 July 1935
Recommissioned:	1 August 1935
Decommissioned:	9 December 1935
Struck:	1 October 1968
Fate:	Sold, 1 July 1977
General characteristics
Type:	Yacht
Displacement:	90 long tons (91 t)
Length:	104 ft (32 m)
Beam:	18 ft 2 in (5.54 m)
Draft:	4 ft 5 in (1.35 m)
Speed:	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	10
Armament:	None

USS SEQUOIA (yacht)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
250px USS Sequoia
Location:	Washington Channel Washington, D.C.
Coordinates:	38°52′32.4006″N 77°1′20.5428″W
Built/Founded:	1933
Architect:	Trumpy, John; Mathis Yacht Building Co.
Governing body:	Private
Added to NRHP:	December 23, 1987
Designated NHL:	December 23, 1987
NRHP Reference#:	87002594

File:Pi20051012c2 sm.jpg

USS Sequoia plays a role in a medal presentation event, 11 October 2005

For other ships of the same name, see USS Sequoia.

USS Sequoia is a former United States presidential yacht currently in private ownership but as of November 2004 sought for repurchase by the U.S. government.

The yacht is 104 feet 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 retrofitted with an elevator for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The ship was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Construction

The Sequoia started out as the Sequoia II, a private yacht built for $200,000 in 1925/1926 at a Camden, New Jersey shipyard. It was built for Richard Cadwalader of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who sold it to William Dunning, the president of the Sequoia Oil Company in Texas.

U.S. Government service

The Sequoia was purchased in 1931 by the United States Department of Commerce, for Prohibition patrol and decoy duties. Herbert Hoover, an avid fisherman, had decommissioned the presidential yacht the Mayflower in 1929 as an economy measure, and borrowed the Sequoia from the Commerce Department as an unofficial yacht during the last two years of his presidency.

In 1933, it was transferred to the United States Navy, serving officially as the presidential yacht for three years, until replaced by the Potomac. From 1936 through 1969 the Sequoia then became the yacht of the Secretary of the Navy. During this period the Sequoia was used by presidents and other high-ranking government officials. From 1969 through 1977 the yacht was dual-use for the Navy and executive branch officials including the president.

At Jimmy Carter's direction, the U.S. government sold it at auction in Manalapan, Florida on 25 March 1977, for $270,000, as a symbolic cutback in Federal Government spending (annual cost to the U.S. Navy was $800,000) and to help eliminate signs of an "imperial presidency".

Notable events aboard the Sequoia include:

• Herbert Hoover sailed her to Florida.
• Dwight Eisenhower loaned her to Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to the U.S.
• John F. Kennedy held strategy meetings during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Richard M. Nixon negotiated the SALT I arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev and Anatoly Dobrynin, and later made the decision to resign the presidency.
• Gerald Ford conducted Cabinet meetings.
• Ronald Reagan met all 50 state governors at the gangplank.
• George H. W. Bush met with Chinese premier Li Peng.

And some seem to be legends:.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower planned European war strategy (this may have been aboard the Potomac).
• Harry S. Truman decided to bomb Hiroshima (the decision was made during the Potsdam Conference).

Controversy

On May 25, 1973 the NBC Evening News reported that 28 marines and 18 sailors handling the Sequoia were transferred and reassigned from Camp David due to marijuana offenses.

After decommissioning

It had a number of owners over the next 25 years, due in part to the expenses associated with the maintenance of a wooden-hulled vessel. Some owners sought to offer it for charter, others were non-profit groups seeking to maintain it for historical or other reasons.

The Presidential Yacht Trust, a non-profit organization, acquired it in 1980 and sponsored an eight-month, 6,000-mile "comeback" tour, but this group went bankrupt three years later. The vessel lay derelict for nearly a decade, and was eventually purchased for $2 million in September 2000, after a shipyard had it renovated at a cost of over $3 million. It underwent additional restoration, and was available for private charters for $2500 per hour in 2003.

In November 2004, Congress voted to appropriate $2 million to repurchase the Sequoia.

Bibliography

• Kelly, Giles M. Sequoia: Presidential Yacht. Centreville, MD: Tidewater Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0870335618
• "The Presidential Yacht U.S.S. Sequoia: Restoring a Time-Honored American Tradition" (January 1983 cover story of Architectural Digest)
• Sequoia Yacht Group LLC website, with history and other information
• Sequoia documentary on History Channel
• Photos and descriptions of U.S. Presidential Yachts
• Presidential Yacht Sailors Reunite with Historic Ship, a 2003 press release from the U.S. Naval Historical Center
• Saving Sequoia, the Yacht of Presidents, a May 1999 article
• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.