The USS Sylph was a yacht of 152 tons displacement purchased during the war with Spain for $50,000. Her length was 123 feet 8 inches, breadth 20 feet. This vessel was placed in commission at the Navy Yard, Norfolk, on August 18, 1898, and soon after was assigned to the Washington Navy Yard. During her 15 years there, she was at the disposal of the President, Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Navy. McKinley was the first President to use the Sylph. President Roosevelt made frequent cruises on her to his summer place at Oyster Bay, New York, and President Taft used this vessel off the New England coast during the summers of his administration. After the Mayflower became the Presidential Yacht, the Sylph remained at the Washington Navy Yard for use of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

The USS Mayflower was a yacht of 2,690 tons displacement purchased March 19, 1898, from the Ogden Goelet estate. Her length was 275 feet; beam 36 feet; draft 17 feet. J. & C. Thompson built this vessel in Clydebank, Scotland, in 1896. She was commissioned at New York on March 24, 1898, and served in the blockade of Cuba during the Spanish-American War and subsequently in Puerto Rican waters. In 1902 the Mayflower was assigned to duty as the Presidential Yacht. Upon completion of this duty she joined the North Atlantic Fleet. Later in the same year she was employed as the flagship of Admiral Dewey and in 1903-1904 as flagship of the squadron in Caribbean. During July to October 1904, she cruised in the Mediterranean. In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt utilized this vessel in arranging terms of peace between Russian and Japan. She continued to be used as the Presidential Yacht by Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, and Coolidge until March 22, 1919. When Herbert Hoover became President he ordered her to be laid up in the interest of economy. After being partially destroyed by fire at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1931, the Mayflower was stricken from the Navy list and her hulk sold October 19, 1931. This ended her career in the United States Navy. She was used as a coastal patrol boat by the Coast Guard during WWII. After the war she was sold and secretly outfitted to carry Jewish settlers from Europe to Palestine. In Sept. 1948 she arrived at Haifa carrying the settlers from Exodus, a refugee ship which had been previously turned back from Palestine. We do not have her subsequent fate.

The USS Sequoia was classified as an "Auxiliary--Miscellaneous" vessel with 100 tons displacement; length on water line, 99 feet, extreme beam at water line, 18 feet 2 inches. The Mathis Yacht Shipbuilding Company, Camden, New Jersey built her, in 1925. This vessel was taken over by the Navy from the Department of Commerce on March 25, 1933 and placed in commission on that date at Annapolis, Maryland. She was assigned to the Washington Navy Yard where she was fitted out as the Presidential Yacht. President Roosevelt made cruises in her during the period 1933-1935.

President Hoover spent his last Christmas in office aboard the Sequoia.

The USS Potomac was classified as "Auxiliary Miscellaneous" vessel with 370 tons displacement; length 165 feet; beam 23 feet 9 inches; mean draft 8 feet 1 inch. She was built for $1.5 million by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin and delivered to the US Coast Guard as the patrol boat Electra in 1934.

Roosevelt didn't feel safe aboard the all wooden Sequoia used by his predecessor, Herbert Hoover. Afraid of a fire at sea, he had the Electra refitted at the Navy Shipyard Portsmouth, VA and recommissioned by the US Navy as the USS Potomac.

The President who led the country through the depression and most of WWII turned the yacht into a "Floating White House", often taking weekend fishing trips to escape the oppressive Washington heat and humidity and to relieve his sinusitis and asthma.

Roosevelt had a small cabin with a single bunk, a joining bathroom and for his beloved dog Fala, a sleeping basket. There is a saloon with a large table for dinner parties. FDR designed the bathtub himself. To get below decks an elevator was installed in a false smokestack. It was operated by the President using a rope and pulley. An electric motor could have been installed but FDR used the elevator as a form of exercise.

In 1939 the President hosted King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth of England. Other guest during WW2 included the exiled royal families of Norway and the Netherlands. Eleanor Roosevelt went on occasional cruises, but never slept aboard. She had been afraid of the water since she had to be rescued as a child after a collision at sea.

As America stood on the threshold of WWII, the Potomac played a vital role in a bit of nautical trickery. Reportably on a Cape Cod fishing trip FDR departed the yacht for the cruiser Augusta at Nantucket Island. When the Potomac sailed through the Cape Cod canal en route to Washington a crew member wearing the President's signature cape and waving the famous cigarette holder doubled as the chief executive while FDR went to meet Winston Churchill off Newfoundland to sign the Atlantic Charter.

The Navy staffed the yacht with two officers and a crew of 54 men of which 12 were Filipino stewards.

Weight added above the main deck had made the Potomac top heavy and subject to capsizing. In 1941, she was condemned as unseaworthy. She did however continue as the Presidential Yacht until the USS Williamsburg was put into service. The US navy decommissioned the Potomac in 1941.

False smoke stack with FDR elevator from the USS Potomac which was removed during the overhaul and now located in Cambridge, Maryland.
(Photo courtesy Chad Maikus)

She served the state of Maryland as a fisheries research vessel from 1946 until 1960;later used as a ferry in the Caribbean and then a floating museum dedicated to FDR.

In 1964 Elvis Presley purchased her for $55,000. Elvis gave the ship to Danny Thomas and the St Jude's Hospital auctioned the Potomac. After several owners she was seized in a drug raid and the US took over ownership. By this time the Potomac was in disrepair and everything of value had been removed.

Put up for auction with a minimum bid of $20,000, no bids were received. Later a bid was accepted for $15.000 and restoration was under way. Restoration cost $5 million with half a government grant with matching funds from private sources thanks in a large part by efforts by FDR's son James and grandson Michael.

The USS Potomac may be visited at the FDR Pier, Jack London Square, Oakland, CA.