Oval Office Oddities

by Bill Fawcett

  SOME HOBBY

  James Buchanan followed the workaholic Franklin Pierce as president. Where Pierce worked killing hours constantly, this next president saw his office as a chance to party. If anything, Buchanan’s hobby was having a good time and drinking. The lavish and regular White House parties he threw were notorious for being both ostentatious and alcoholic. This president also liked his liquor more than just about any other. He was known to imbibe all night and rarely even show the effects of the liquor. Larger bottles were his preference and he once chastised a caterer for using too-small bottles for the champagne at one of his many parties (magnums were more his style). To give you some idea of just how much drinking went on in the executive mansion during Buchanan’s administration you need just look at how this president bought his whiskey supply. Many Sundays, on his way back from church, James Buchanan would make a short side trip to the distillery of Jacob Baer. There he would purchase a ten-gallon barrel of what he fondly referred to as “old JB.”

  TEE TIME

  Some people think in the tub, others create during walks. Dwight D. Eisenhower appears to have run the United States from the golf course. An avid golfer, Ike spent up to one hundred days a year while president golfing. That is about three days a week. Being willing to accept only victory served Ike well as a general, but as a golfer it made him a sore loser whose temper appeared when he flubbed a shot.

  IN DEFEAT

  Supreme commander Dwight Eisenhower defeated the Nazis. But once president, he met a foe that he could never win a permanent victory against. This was not the Democrats or even the French. Ike so loved golf that he had a putting green installed on the White House lawn. But despite all efforts, the White House squirrels constantly dug or tore it up.

  Ike took his golf seriously and hated interruptions, even when president. While playing a round in Denver in 1955, he was called off the course four separate times on government business. That would throw anyone’s game off, and the president spent the rest of the day in a rage. That night he had a major heart attack. The nation worried, and when it got the news, the stock market lost fourteen billion dollars in value the next day.

  All Ike’s efforts paid off after the president had retired and could really concentrate on his game. On February 6, 1968, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower scored a hole-in-one while golfing in Palm Springs.

  23

  PRESIDENTIAL YACHTS

  By Ginger Marshall Martus

  O Captain! My Captain!” is more than a poem commemorating Lincoln. Many of our presidents were ardent sailors. Perhaps it is simply the appeal of the sea. Or maybe it is the fact that reporters can’t tag along. Here, a noted yachting historian takes a quick look at the ships beyond the ship of state that past presidents have commanded.

  Did you know there have been only seven “official” presidential yachts? Two were “unofficial”: the Lenore and the Margie. The longest was 275 feet, the USS Mayflower; the shortest is the USS Sequoia, at 104 feet. In 1964, Elvis Presley purchased the USS Potomac for $55,000 and then gave it to Danny Thomas for a St. Jude Hospital auction.

  USS Mayflower, 1898

  There were no government-owned presidential yachts before President William McKinley, who served from 1897 to 1901, when he was assassinated. However, there were unofficial yachts that were almost always available for the president’s use. McKinley referred to his as his “presidential ship.” Theodore Roosevelt was next to assume office and preferred the term presidential yacht instead of presidential ship, and this term has prevailed.

  One yacht was the USS Mayflower. This yacht was 275 feet long with a thirty-six-foot beam and was built in Scotland in 1896. She was purchased from the Ogden Goelet estate in 1898. In 1902, the USS Mayflower was used as the official presidential yacht. She became the flagship of Admiral Dewey from 1903–1904 and later served in the Caribbean until 1919. Afterward, she was used as a coastal patrol boat by the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1931, she was laid up after being partially destroyed in a fire while at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and was eventually sold to a private buyer. She then was decommissioned by the navy and served as a gunboat in World War II.

  The smallest official presidential yacht was the USS Sequoia. At 104 feet in length with a nineteen-foot beam, she was built in 1925 at the Mathis Yacht and Shipbuilding Company in Camden, New Jersey. She is perhaps the best known of all presidential yachts and is still with us today. This vessel was originally built for a Philadelphia lawyer, Richard Calwalder, Jr., but was taken over by the Navy and placed in commission in 1933 at Annapolis, Maryland.

  The USS Despatch was the first official official presidential yacht and was used by McKinley. This 174-foot yacht was the only presidential yacht ever wrecked. She sank off Chincoteague Island, which is off the coast of Virginia, and the hulk is still there. Later the USS Dolphin, with a length of 256 feet, was also used by McKinley for a cruise up the Atlantic coast to New York City in 1897 to dedicate Grant’s Tomb.

  USS Sylph, 1898

  The next official yacht, the USS Sylph, was 123 feet long with a twenty-foot beam. She had a long bowsprit, two masts, and a smokestack. The USS Sylph was purchased by the government for $50,000 and commissioned in 1898. President Theodore Roosevelt made frequent cruises on her to his home at Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York. Later his distant cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, used USS Sylph as well. FDR was an avid sailor in his youth and a former assistant secretary of the navy. He had a great love for the sea and a keen knowledge of ships.

  USS Potomac, 1936

  USS Potomac, originally built for the U.S. Coast Guard in Wisconsin in 1934, was 165 feet long with a twenty-three-foot nine-inch beam and formerly was named Electra. In 1936 she was renamed USS Potomac and was transferred to the navy. For the next nine years, she served as the official presidential yacht. FDR used the yacht frequently, but Eleanor, his wife, rarely came aboard as she did not like the nautical life. However, she did celebrate her fifty-seventh birthday onboard in 1941. Another time she sailed on the Potomac was in June 1939. This was a rather special occasion since King George VI and the future Queen Elizabeth II were on board as guests. Franklin Roosevelt, who had lost the ability to walk, had an elevator installed on board so he could be hoisted between decks.

  Eleanor does not appear to have boarded when President Franklin Roosevelt entertained Winston Churchill. The prime minister complained that the deck chairs were uncomfortable, even after imbibing his favorite triple scotch and soda. Roosevelt entertained foreign dignitaries and also planned D-Day with General Eisenhower aboard his yacht. FDR did not like to fly and so preferred to travel by train or ship using a government yacht for official travel when possible. He also liked to fish from the stern of the yacht. FDR turned the USS Potomac into a “floating White House.” He even had a sleeping basket for his beloved dog, Fala. He also had another elevator installed in a false smokestack, which was later removed and today can be seen at the waterfront park in Cambridge, Maryland. The yacht carried two officers and a crew of 54 men. In 1941, she was condemned as unseaworthy but after restoration and conversion was used as a fisheries research vessel from 1946 to 1960; she later was a ferry in the Caribbean. Later in his career FDR also sailed on the USS Sequoia, which was also adapted to his disabilities.

  After Truman succeeded upon FDR’s death, he also used the Sequoia, but often in a less formal manner. There was a long scratch on the Sequoia’s dining table, which is attributed to President Harry Truman, the result of a rowdy poker game, one of his favorite onboard pastimes.

  The USS Williamsburg was built for Hugh J. Chrishold in Maine in 1930 and named Aras. She was 243 feet long with a thirty-six-foot beam, and was acquired by the U.S. government in 1941. President Harry Truman used her frequently for long and short cruises, plus entertaining foreign leaders. She carried eight officers and a crew of one hundred thirty.

  In 1953, President Eisenhower announced he no longer needed the yacht and had her decommissioned. She was inactive for about ten y
ears until the National Science Foundation acquired her. Then, in 1968, she was damaged in a dry-dock accident, repaired, and later assigned to take rehabilitating wounded Korean veterans on afternoon cruises on the Potomac River.

  In 1963, she was sent to Genoa, Italy, for conversion to a cruise ship, which never materialized. Today she is abandoned and listing in Genoa’s harbor.

  While Nixon was president, he used the Sequoia frequently. He stated that being at sea helped while he searched his soul and came to the conclusion he had no option but to resign the presidency after the Watergate scandal. President Gerald Ford also entertained foreign visitors and held cabinet meetings onboard.

  President John F. Kennedy loved the nautical life and used the Sequoia frequently with family and friends. Together with Jacqueline and the two children, they cruised the Chesapeake Bay and had a surprise forty-sixth birthday party for John onboard.

  Perhaps he preferred a simpler life or had enough of the water when he served on a nuclear sub, but it appears that President Jimmy Carter never set foot on the presidential yacht. The ship was put up for auction in 1976 and a private buyer bought the Sequoia for $270,000. The yacht changed ownership several times and ended up being mothballed for many years. In 1985, Congress declared the USS Sequoia a National Historic Landmark.

  In 2000, Washington, D.C., lawyer Gary Silversmith, a presidential memorabilia collector, bought the USS Sequoia for $1.9 million and had her completely restored. She is now on the Potomac River and available for charter. There is currently a Presidential Yacht Foundation that is trying to raise funds to buy the yacht from Silversmith and return it to the public as well as make it available to members of the Congress, Supreme Court, and cabinet.

  In 1981, the USS Potomac was again put up for auction and was bought by the Port of Oakland for $15,000. Fully restored, today she is open to the public and can be seen at the FDR Pier in Oakland, California. In 1990, she was designated a National Historic Landmark.

  The next two yachts were “unofficial” but well known. These boats served as “escort” boats.

  Perhaps the best known is the Lenore (also known as the Honey Fitz). This yacht was originally built for Sewell Avery, the chairman of the board of Montgomery Ward, in 1931. She is 92 feet long with a sixteen-foot six-inch beam. In 1935, Avery began serious clashes with the government over President Roosevelt’s wage and price provisions, and in 1944, at the age of seventy, he was physically carried out of one of the Montgomery Ward buildings by two soldiers and the government seized his yacht. The yacht was later used as a training ship for submarine crews and also carried Secret Service agents while accompanying the president.

  In 1953, President Eisenhower retired the yacht from active service but she was still available for use. When President John F. Kennedy was in office, he used her extensively, and renamed her the Honey Fitz after his grandfather. It is said that some of his happiest moments were spent onboard this yacht. The yacht was kept mostly at Hyannisport, near the family summer home.

  When President Lyndon Johnson used the USS Sequoia, almost twenty years after Truman, he had FDR’s elevator converted into a wet bar for cocktail service. Johnson, being one of the tallest presidents, had the yacht’s ceilings raised three inches while the floor of the shower room was lowered three inches. Johnson found one excellent use for the yacht: it could leave port and, once on board, he could avoid reporters. The president also retreated to the yacht to assess the impact the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., had on the nation. He also sailed on the unofficial presidential yacht the Lenore/Honey Fitz on occasion.

  By the time Nixon came to office, the Honey Fitz was a well-known entity. He renamed the yacht Patricia, after his wife, but most people still thought of her as the Honey Fitz. In 1970, Nixon put the yacht up for sale. She was eventually sold to Joe Keating, an avid lover of the sea and a great fan of the Kennedys. The boat was restored exactly to the way it had been during the Kennedy administration and Keating placed her in the charter trade in New York City. Keating renamed the yacht Presidents, and she was used by private groups as well as for chartering. She was later sold to unknown buyers at the Kennedy Memorabilia Auction for $5,942,000. In 1988, William Kallop, a New York businessman, took sole possession. She then remained “on the hard” in Louisiana and began a slow decline—paint peeling, planks rotting, the staterooms in shambles, the interior stripped bare, and all the once-fine furniture gone. In April 2002, she was moved to a construction yard in Alabama where a complete restoration took place. She is, once again, being used and is in Mobile Bay, Alabama.

  The Margie was built in 1940 for L. P. Fisher, vice president of Fisher Body Works in Michigan. The War Shipping Administration acquired her in 1942 for Coast Guard use, but she was transferred to the Navy in 1945. She is sixty-four feet long with a fourteen-foot six-inch beam. She was used by the Trumans for trips on the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay and renamed Margie after their daughter. She was later sold at auction to an unknown buyer. She was never an official presidential yacht, though she was owned by the government. In 1953, Ike renamed the vessel the Susie E and used it to entertain dignitaries.

  Just in case you wanted to know who sailed on what and when, here is where your tax dollars went to sea:

  PRESIDENTIAL YACHTS

  USS Sequoia, 1931

  Ginger Marshall Martus grew up in the family business known as A&R Marshall, Inc., on Manhasset Bay, Long Island, New York. She became a nautical historian and writer. In 1996, she founded the national news letter Bone Yard Boats, about saving worthy old boats. She also founded the Nautical Center of the Port Washington Public Library. She is a member of numerous nautical organizations, has presented programs, gives annual awards at four classic boat shows, and writes for Nor’easter magazine.

  24

  ASSASSINATIONS AND ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATIONS

  “Sorry, dear, I forgot to duck.”

  Ronald Reagan

  The first attempt to assassinate a president failed. In 1835, a man who was firmly convinced that the only reason he was not King of America was because of Andrew Jackson, tried to shoot him on the steps of the Capitol. Andrew Lawrence fired a pistol at close range, but it misfired. He fired a second pistol and it misfired as well. He was quickly grabbed, disarmed, and placed in an asylum.

  ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS SINCE 1865

  Abraham Lincoln was shot April 14, 1865 at a Washington, D.C., theater by actor John Wilkes Booth, who was bitter over the defeat of the Confederacy. Lincoln died the next day.

  James Garfield was shot July 2, 1881, in Baltimore by Charles J. Guiteau, who was a frustrated and likely deranged office seeker, and died September 19. The assassination led to a change in how federal employees were hired.

  William McKinley was shot September 6, 1901, in Buffalo by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz; died September 14.

  Teddy Roosevelt escaped assassination (though he was shot) October 14, 1912, in Milwaukee by John Schrank, who was found insane.

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then merely president-elect, escaped assassination unhurt February 15, 1933, in Miami, when Giuseppe Zangara, later found insane, fired five shots at Roosevelt’s motorcade. Killed in the attempt was Mayor Anton Cermack of Chicago. It is possible Cermak was the actual target.

  Harry S. Truman escaped unhurt from an assassination attempt by two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, November 1, 1950, in Washington, D.C.

  John F. Kennedy was shot November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, by at least Lee Harvey Oswald in what may be the most discussed and dissected assassination in history.

  Robert F. Kennedy, candidate for presidential nomination, was shot June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan, who felt betrayed by RFK’s support for Israel, and died the next day.

  Richard Nixon was targeted by Samuel Byck in 1974. Byck planned to crash a commercial airplane into the White House, but was thwarted before it took off. He did shoot both the pilot and copilot before turning t
he gun on himself. The airspace over the White House is now a restricted zone.

  George Wallace was critically wounded in an assassination attempt May 15, 1972, at Laurel, Maryland. The shot left the governor and presidential candidate paralyzed from the waist down.

  Gerald R. Ford escaped an assassination attempt September 5, 1975, in Sacramento, California, by Lynette Alice (Squeaky) Fromme, who was a follower of Charles Manson, and later in San Francisco, California, on September 22, 1975, by Sarah Jane Moore.

  Jimmy Carter may have been targeted when speaking in 1979 in Los Angeles. Raymond Harvey was arrested carrying a gun just before the president spoke. He later claimed to be part of a larger conspiracy involving Mexican snipers.

  Ronald Reagan was shot in the left lung in Washington by John W. Hinckley, Jr., on March 30, 1981; three others were also wounded. Hinckley was said to have been inspired by the movie Taxi Driver and had stalked President Carter before Reagan took office. The assassin was fixated on the actress Jodie Foster and actually sent her a letter outlining in advance how he would assassinate the president.

  George H. W. Bush was the target of sixteen terrorists working for Saddam Hussein. Their plan was to use a car bomb to kill the senior Bush while he spoke in 1993 at Kuwait University. The assassins were captured by the Kuwaitis before the plot could be attempted.

  William Clinton was watching a football game in his executive residence when Francisco Duran fired nearly thirty shots into the White House from the South Lawn. He was firing at a group of staffers he had spotted, under the assumption they were the president and his Secret Service detail. No one was hurt.