WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Americans celebrate a New Year, attorney Gary Silversmith is proud to celebrate yet another year with a piece of history — the most famous boat in the world —the U.S.S. Sequoia.
The former United States presidential yacht had served Herbert Hoover and seven presidents after, including Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.
Silversmith, a well-respected attorney who graduated from Georgetown University, obtained the boat in 2000 and says every day is a surprise.
A RICH HISTORY
The boat got its start with former owner William Dunning, who was an oil executive of Sequoia Oil (hence, her name). Sequoia fell on hard times during the Depression and sold her to the Commerce Department in 1931 for $42,500. It was built for about $200,000 about five years before.
YACHT SPEFICATIONS
A well-known shipbuilder John Trumpy Senior designed the presidential yacht. The current measurements of the Sequoia are 104 feet long that comes with a wooden hull. It includes a presidential stateroom, multiple guest bedrooms, a place for dinner and a liquor bar.
By 1933, Sequoia was transferred to the U.S. Navy and was made a presidential yacht. She was decommissioned under Roosevelt which than caused it to lose it’s “U.S.S.” but it is still used as part of the name today.
After a $5 million restoration, this 104-foot floating historic landmark now has limited availability for private functions and special events, according to the U.S.S. Sequoia Presidential Yacht website.
HISTORIC MOMENTS
The yacht has catered to the needs of presidents, diplomats, statesmen and world dignitaries for nearly 90 years.
According to The History Channel, important events aboard the Sequoia include President Kennedy holding strategy meetings during the Cuban Missile Crisis; having his last birthday party on the yacht; President Nixon negotiating the SALT I arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev and Anatoly Dobrynin; President George H.W. Bush met with Chinese premier Li Peng; Presidents Roosevelt and Eisenhower planned European war strategy; President Truman decided to bomb Hiroshima.
“The extensive collection of authentic presidential memorabilia and artifacts create the prefect environment for affairs of the heart or the state. The dining room can accommodate up to 22 guests for an elegant sit-down dinner or up to 49 guests dining buffet style,” the Sequoia website states. “Imagine sipping cocktails and dining canapés in the very rooms where JFK slept and Nixon played “God Bless America” on the piano and Churchill and Roosevelt planned the D-Day invasion. The U.S.S. Sequoia Presidential Yacht is the perfect setting for high-end social events or business functions of a presidential nature!”
Gary Silversmith Sequoia Presidential Yacht
Website:
visual.ly/gary-silversmith-sequoia-presidential-yacht
http://www.garysilversmith.net/2013/10/gary-j-silversmith-introduction.html
http://www.garysilversmith.org/