Monday, November 9, 2015

Presidential Yacht Mayflower-- Part 1: Veteran of Four Wars

From Wikipedia.

After his recovery from the wound he received at Vera Cruz in 1914, seaman Leon D. Robinson of Sycamore, Illinois, served aboard the presidential yacht Mayflower in 1915.

The Mayflower was a luxury steam yacht built in 1896 for millionaire Ogden Goelet who died on board it in 1897.  The Navy acquired it for the Spanish-American War and it was commissioned the USS Mayflower 24 May 1898.  It served off Cuba during the war and mounted six 6-pdr. guns.

It was decommissioned and then recommissioned in 1905 and played a prominent role in the negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War which netted President Theodore Roosevelt a Nobel Peace Prize.  from 1906-1929, it served as presidential yacht and hosted many diplomatic events.

President Herbert Hoover had the ship decommssioned and sold as a money-saving effort and in 1931, it was sold to a private individual.

--Cooter

No comments: