When Americans go to the polls today to elect a new president, they will be handing somebody a job with world–class perks. There's the six–figure salary and the house, the private jet and the helicopter.
But there is no yacht – not anymore.
THE SEQUOIA PRESIDENTIAL YACHT GROUPSequoia is meticulously maintained to this day.
There have been eight Presidential yachts in total, historians say, from the U.S.S. Despatch for Rutherford B. Hayes to John F. Kennedy's famous Honey Fitz, later sold at a Kennedy memorabilia auction for a whopping $5.9 million. (It remains in private hands.)
Presidents from Abraham Lincoln and beyond used the vessels for many different purposes. In the time before air travel, they served as the Air Force One of the day. Modern presidents used them to entertain. It wasn't until the Carter years that the yacht disappeared as a Presidential perk, felled by administration cost-cutting efforts.
Some of the boats, however, are still around.
PRESIDENTIAL PERKS
Presidential yachts were often anchored in the Potomac or Anacostia Rivers not far from downtown Washington and afforded a breezy and quick escape from the confines of the White House, as well as an intimate setting to entertain world leaders or close friends, even family members.
THE SEQUOIA PRESIDENTIAL YACHT GROUPNote the Presidential seal above the bed and on the bedspread here aboard Sequoia.
"They used it to get out of the White House, which is sort of a claustrophobic existence"¦this was a way for them to get out and relax," former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in a History Channel documentary.
The most famous Presidential yacht, U.S.S. Sequoia, is still moored on the Washington waterfront, about 10 minutes from the White House.
Scores of U.S. Presidents and world leaders have relaxed on board the Sequoia and other Presidential yachts over the years. But others have been ambivalent about the yachts, fearing the public perception of the vessels as rich men's playthings. Dwight D. Eisenhower, for example, pronounced one "too rich for my blood" and avoided being photographed on another.
One President in particular has so far managed to elude the teak–and–mahogany charms of Sequoia: George W. Bush.
In the waning days of the Bush presidency, the yacht's owner, history buff and lawyer Gary Silversmith, hopes that will change. He'd like Bush to come on one of the pro bono cruises along the Potomac River he hosts for injured war veterans.
THE SEQUOIA PRESIDENTIAL YACHT GROUPIf walls could talk, imagine the tales Sequoia's would tell, from Churchill to Nixon.
Asked if he thought Bush avoided socializing aboard the yacht because it might reinforce stereotypes of the President as a spoiled blueblood, Silversmith just smiles. "I believe that's the case," he says dryly. "But we're hoping he will use it before he leaves office."
U.S.S. SEQUOIA
Of the eight vessels, some of which have not survived, the best known is Sequoia, which still travels the Potomac regularly as a private charter boat – at $12,500 a pop. Presidents from Herbert Hoover to Gerald R. Ford regularly used the boat to entertain heads of state and visiting dignitaries, as well as for quick fishing getaways with friends and family.
History abounds: Sequoia was the site of Kennedy's last birthday party. Lyndon Baines Johnson lobbied for civil rights legislation aboard. Richard M. Nixon took his family on a cruise shortly before he resigned the presidency in 1974. With such a rich past, Sequoia was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
Silversmith said that one former Bush Administration official approached him after one cruise and said, "'This is the most important piece of Americana not owned by the government.' It's that sentiment I think that makes it so valuable."
