USS Potomac
The USS Potomac was originally the USCGC Electra,
until Franklin Delano Roosevelt would use it as his presidential
yacht from 1936 until his passing in 1945 and is only one of the
three presidential yachts still afloat. In August of 1941, she would
be used as a decoy when Roosevelt would attend a secret meeting that
would develop the Atlantic Charter, and is currently being preserved
as a National Historic Landmark. The Atlantic Charter would define
the Allied goals for the post-war era world and detailed numerous
goals that the Allies wanted to engage after the end of WWII. The
Potomac was constructed in 1934 by the Manitowac Ship Building
Company in Wisconsin, as a United States Coast Guard Cutter and
named the Electra. In 1936, she would be converted to a presidential
yacht and commissioned into the United States Navy. The excellent
vessel would then be used extensively by Roosevelt for fishing trips
and entertaining guests that included the Crown Princess Martha of
Norway. In 1939, England's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth would
travel with the Roosevelts on board the vessel to the home of George
Washington, Mt. Vernon. In 1941, Roosevelt would leave the capitol
and board the Potomac in New London, Connecticut, sailing for
Appogansett Bay while the president fished and eventually she would
anchor in Menemsha Bight in Vineyard Sound, where the heavy cruiser,
USS Augusta lay at anchor. In the wee hours of the early morning of
August 5, the Potomac came alongside the Augusta and the president
and his party would board the cruiser, which headed out at high
speed to Newfoundland, where Winston Churchill waited to discuss the
plans and the Atlantic Charter with Roosevelt. His flag would still
be hung from the mast on board the Potomac, with a secret serviceman
posing as Roosevelt. When the meeting was over, the president
returned to the yacht and no one was the wiser. She would be
decommissioned after Roosevelt passed on, and returned to the Coast
Guard in November of 1945. Beginning in 1946, she would be used by
the Maryland Tidewater Fisheries commission and then sold to Warren
G. Toone in 1960, where she would be used as a ferry between the
Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Elvis Presley would purchase the
gorgeous ship in 1964 for $55,000, who then offered it to the March
of Dimes that wouldn't be able to use it. So, he gave it to St.
Jude's Children's hospital in Memphis so they could sell it as a
fund raiser. They sold it that year for $75,000, but by 1980 was
seized by the US Customs Service when she was stopped for smuggling
drugs. She would be towed to Treasure Island and then sink. Two
weeks later the navy refloated her and then sold it to the port of
Oakland for $15,000.
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