Essentially the most uncommon cruise ship within the Bay Space? It is FDR’s yacht in Oakland
Within the Bay Space, good ships are a dime a dozen.
However there’s just one ship that was the presidential yacht for Franklin D. Roosevelt and owned by Elvis, then later impounded in one of many greatest drug busts in U.S. historical past, earlier than sinking in 30 ft of water — after which improbably rising once more as a Nationwide Historic Landmark.
It’s the USS Potomac, and it’s open for public excursions in Oakland’s Jack London Sq.. Even domestically, nonetheless, most individuals haven’t heard its story.
“She’s a relative secret, nonetheless,” says John Eichel, a volunteer docent for the nonprofit USS Potomac Affiliation. “Many people in Alameda, proper throughout the water, don’t even learn about it.”
On this specific day, Eichel is giving a tour to a small group who board the ship because the breeze kicks up and the temperature – scorching and dry on land – drops a number of levels. Pelicans soar drunkenly, and cormorants slip snakelike beneath the brackish estuary. There’s an inquisitive sea lion that typically visits, too, however he appears to be taking the time off.
Ivory-white and 165-feet lengthy, the modified U.S. Coast Guard cutter casts a presidential aura regardless of a weld transecting its midriff like a nasty surgical scar, proof of post-sinking renovations. Within the Forties and ’50s, she chugged across the Jap seaboard and earned the nickname the “Floating White Home.” Roosevelt did certainly use her for official functions, like entertaining overseas heads of state resembling King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and conducting secret wartime conferences.
Partially disabled from polio (or maybe Guillain–Barré syndrome, based on fashionable theories), the president had a smokestack transformed right into a hand-powered, rope-and-pulley elevator and a sofa the place he may put his ft as much as take pleasure in his famously bizarre martinis.
The entrance finish of the boat is the place Roosevelt performed enterprise, and the again was the presidential or “social gathering finish,” says Eichel. “So it’s enterprise within the entrance, social gathering within the again,” quips a customer.
The highest velocity was once 20 knots, however now it scoots round at 11 knots. “Except we have now Captain Richard. He likes to push issues a bit,” jokes Eichel. The identical customer pipes up once more: “Appears like he belongs on the social gathering facet of the boat.”
The Potomac affords excursions between one and three hours lengthy in addition to dockside excursions for landlubbers, which is what we’re doing at the moment. It’s employed out for charters, does particular cruises on navy dates like Veterans Day and VJ Day and hosts wine tastings and music by blues and canopy bands.
In November, the ship will host what Jennifer Pettley, govt director of the USS Potomac Affiliation calls an “Elvis live performance dwell on board.”
“We now have an Elvis impersonator, among the finest within the Bay Space,” she says.
Proper now, although, Eichel is pointing at a rest room. There have been greater than 50 crew members when FDR was in cost, together with U.S. Navy and Secret Service personnel, and most needed to share a single “head.” There have been different inconveniences in case you weren’t white. The sleeping bunks for Filipino crew members have been positioned within the ship’s entrance, the place waves hit hardest — one of many extra outward indicators of discrimination on the time.
Roosevelt hated flying and was a lifelong boat man. He sailed the Hudson as a child and went on to develop into assistant secretary of the Navy. He most popular his ships constructed of steel, just like the Potomac, as a result of he didn’t need to be trapped on a wood one in a wheelchair whereas it was burning, based on Eichel.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt and Woman Alice Clifford, spouse of the governor of the Bahamas, are proven aboard Potomac, April 1, 1936. (AP Photograph)
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Franklin D. Roosevelt and Woman Alice Clifford, spouse of the governor of the Bahamas, are proven aboard Potomac, April 1, 1936. (AP Photograph)
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“I feel he discovered his biggest moments of leisure and peace when he was on this boat or one other boat,” says Tom Dana, a volunteer docent.
Some say Roosevelt used the Potomac to get away from the pressures of workplace. Others say it was to get away from Henrietta Nesbitt, the housekeeper who supervised the kitchen on the White Home. Nesbitt’s motto was “plain meals, plainly ready,” and the delicacies was so repetitive visitors knew what they’d eat by what day it was: Monday was tongue with broccoli, Tuesday boiled beef with blended greens.
“And so it occurred that probably the most highly effective man within the free world typically spent his dinners consuming solely what he may bear,” reads an indication onboard the ship, “then rummaging up egg sandwiches in a bit kitchen subsequent to the presidential research.”
Roosevelt used the social gathering finish of the ship for his “Youngsters’s Hour,” named after a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, which was a time of hobnobbing together with his internal circle and visitors, the place discuss of politics and enterprise was forbidden. With a Naval assist holding his arm, he’d maintain courtroom whereas mixing cocktails whose recipes have been seemingly beamed down from Mars.
“The martinis began out easy sufficient, often as a 3:1 or typically 4:1 gin and dry vermouth,” based on a 2021 article from a Nationwide Archives technician. “Shaken over ice. Cocktail glass. Olive or lemon peel garnish. Then it will get difficult…. Maybe he may add some fruit juices or liqueurs or substitute with another liquor for gin when his residence bar was restricted. Typically an additional measure of gin to be on the protected facet, as he may lose observe of his measurements whereas deep in storytelling. You’ll be able to see how rapidly issues may get uncontrolled. In line with his grandson Curtis, the martinis have been mentioned to be ‘really terrible.’”
The Potomac made endeavors as mundane as fishing journeys within the Gulf of Mexico – FDR cherished fishing and as soon as despatched an “extraordinarily ugly” catch for inclusion within the Smithsonian – and as secretive as a clandestine assembly with Winston Churchill for World Warfare II’s Atlantic Constitution convention. However because the warfare ramped up and German U-boats patrolled the coast, she was confined to native waters and ultimately offered to the state of Maryland after which personal house owners.
That’s when the story will get stranger.
Years of neglect left the Potomac sorely in want of TLC. It ended up docked in Lengthy Seashore, the place it was supposedly used as a floating disco. “Individuals have been at all times excited by her, however no one had the sources to maintenance her,” explains Eichel.
That was the place the boat was docked when Elvis Presley set his sights on her in 1964. The King purchased the yacht for $55,000 and provided to donate it to the March of Dimes — a tribute to FDR, who helped begin the charity. However the gesture was rejected, because the situation of the Potomac at that time was so poor that it was thought-about to be extra of a burden than a present. His provide to the Florida Coast Guard Auxiliary additionally acquired the brush-off. Finally, Elvis discovered a keen taker in St. Jude Youngsters’s Analysis Hospital, donating her after only a few months.
“On the time, the British invasion was occurring,” says Pettley. “They have been on the lookout for alternatives to maintain Elvis’ identify on the market, and possibly that’s why they bought the presidential yacht.”
The Potomac’s identify surfaced subsequent in 1980, when the feds introduced the largest up to date drug bust within the historical past of the Western U.S. Each it and a transformed minesweeper, of all issues, have been seized and towed away after drug runners’ ruse of displaying indicators saying “Crippled Youngsters Society of America” didn’t idiot authorities.
“They recovered 20 tons of Colombian weed, with a $40 million road worth,” says Eichel. “A lot of the marijuana was on the transformed minesweeper. The USS Potomac was only a cowl.”
It was the bottom level within the ship’s historical past. Properly, not the literal lowest — that got here when it sank post-seizure close to Treasure Island. The speculation was that an especially low tide allowed a submerged piling to pierce the hull. The Potomac quietly decayed below the waves, its backside changing into a skeletal body, till the Port of Oakland purchased her for $15,000 to refurbish right into a vacationer attraction in Jack London Sq..
She was painstakingly restored based on the unique plans, and this yr is celebrating her thirtieth anniversary again on the appropriate facet of the water. Now the USS Potomac seems similar to new, save for a few fashionable tweaks that may’ve shocked FDR.
“There’s this old style steering wheel, and typically cheeky passengers come up and ask the captain if they will steer the ship,” says Eichel. “He lets them. However what they don’t know is he’s really controlling it with a bit joystick elsewhere within the cabin.”
Particulars: The USS Potomac affords weekly cruises and dockside excursions from 540 Water St., Oakland; for costs and instances go to usspotomac.org
If you happen to take pleasure in uncommon cruises…
Need to take a voyage that’ll go away you with an excellent story? The USS Potomac isn’t the one distinctive ship within the Bay Space – take into account taking certainly one of these for a spin.
Monterey Bay Eco Excursions: montereybayecotours.com
This family-owned operation sends a custom-made electrical vessel into the Monterey Bay’s Elkhorn Slough, an ecological gem full of sea otters, seals and sea birds. Jane Goodall reportedly patronized it twice in 2025 – does an endorsement get any higher?
Journey Cat: www.adventurecat.com
A husband and spouse constructed this catamaran by hand, and now take it on cruises of the Bay. The sail lends an old-timey really feel, and the twin hull makes for a supremely secure experience.
Metropolis Cruises: www.cityexperiences.com
This main touring firm departs from San Francisco and the Berkeley Marina and is understood for its dwell occasions with rock stars and celeb cooks, plus drag brunches.