John F. Kennedy celebrated his 46th and final birthday aboard her. Lyndon Baines Johnson enjoyed watching movies in her main salon, and it was in her grand presidential stateroom where Richard M. Nixon reportedly decided he would resign the presidency.
We’re talking, of course, about the ex-Presidential Yacht Sequoia, which was designed by John Trumpy of Trumpy Yachts fame, and built by John H. Mathis & Company Shipbuilders in Camden, New Jersey, in 1925.
After serving eight presidents, Sequoia was sold in 1977. Since then, she’s been in many hands, once serving as a charter vessel and a dockside museum. She found new owners again about six years ago, but unfortunately fell further into disrepair during an ensuing legal battle between the new owners and a Virginia boatyard.
Last week, Sequoia began a new journey. After the legal dispute was settled with the boatyard earlier this year, she was loaded onto a barge and sent to the Richardson Maritime Museum in Cambridge, Maryland. Last week, she was loaded on a new barge headed for Belfast, Maine, where boatbuilder French & Webb will fully rebuild her from stem-to-stern.
You can read all about the trip and plans for her restoration in this article by the Bangor Daily News. Additionally, this video shows Sequoia being loaded from land onto a barge bound for Maine.
