San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Aboard FDR’s floating White House
The rains had finally let up, and I spent the other afternoon in Oakland at the head of the table where the president of the United States once sat, talking about Franklin D. Roosevelt, politics and salt water.
Ford Roosevelt was my host. He is the son of Elliott Roosevelt, FDR’s son, so he’s the president’s grandson. Ford has what he calls “a dream job.” He is executive director of the Association for the Preservation of the Presidential Yacht Potomac, which owns and operates the Potomac, which has been restored to its 1930s condition.
The Potomac, once a Coast Guard cutter, served as the president’s yacht from 1936 until Roosevelt’s death in 1945. It was a combination of a presidential vacation retreat, Air Force One and floating White House. Here Roosevelt entertained visitors — kings and queens, Cabinet members, political bigwigs and old pals. He also used it for fishing trips and short vacations.
“If you want to see the human and personal side of Roosevelt, go to Warm Springs,” Ford said. “If you want to see his political side, go to Hyde Park.” Warm Springs was FDR’s retreat in Georgia; Hyde Park was the Roosevelt family home on the Hudson River.
“If you want to see another side of him, come aboard here,” Ford said.
“Here” is at Jack London Square, right next to the ferry dock, a piece of salty presidential history that’s a 20-minute voyage from downtown San Francisco. The ship sails on the bay in every season but winter.
Ford thinks the president would have liked the
berth on the Oakland Estuary. “It’s great to have the Potomac here at a working seaport,” he said.
“He was really a water guy. Remember he had been assistant secretary of the Navy, a job he relished. He had always sailed yachts before he got polio. And on the Potomac, he could go fishing, or sit on the fantail and tell his stories and talk. Or in the evening he’d sit in the salon and mix the evening martini,” Ford said.
“He would use the bar right there,” he said, pointing to a restored small pantry near the dining table. Ford talks as if the president — he calls him “my grandfather” — were still around and might come back aboard at any moment.
It was not just a yacht. A lot of serious presidential work was done on board the Potomac. The president could leave the White House and have policy discussions on board without interruption. “One frequent visitor was Frances Perkins, the secretary of labor,” Ford said. “Out of those discussions on the Potomac would come new policy. The Potomac had a big role in the New Deal.
Ford is 75 now. “Thank God for Social Security,” he said.
What impresses visitors the most about the presidential yacht is its simplicity. The president’s cabin with a single bunk and a bath is plain in the extreme. There’s no luxury, no gold plate on board, but there is a bit of brass, and the woodwork is shined Bristol fashion. The 88year-old ship looks new.
The Potomac comes with a backstory. It was decommissioned as the presidential yacht in 1945, sent back to the Coast Guard and sold out of government service. It kicked around a bit: Elvis Presley owned it briefly. He gave it to Danny Thomas’ St. Jude Foundation. It was sold again and showed up in San Francisco in 1980 with vague talk about a floating museum. But that was a cover story: The owners were running drugs. The Potomac was seized by the government and sank in the Treasure Island cove.
Walter Abernathy, executive director of the Port of Oakland, bought it at auction for $15,000. The nonprofit Potomac Association had it restored at a cost of more than $6 million.
Ford has a bit of a back story as well. He was born in 1947, so he never knew the president.
Elliott Roosevelt, FDR’s second son, married Patricia Peabody Whitehead in 1960. Elliott adopted her four children, including Ford, who was a teenager. Ford remembers going to Hyde Park to meet Eleanor Roosevelt, the former first lady. She was charming and gracious “I am your grand-mere,” she said.
Ford later went to UC Santa Cruz and for 19 years was CEO of Project Grad in Southern California, which helped get underprivileged children into college. After he retired, he moved to the Bay Area to be near his children and grandchildren. And then the Potomac job came up.
He lives in Alameda just across the estuary from the Potomac. He’s full of ideas for the ship — science education, more trips for kids and so on. The ship is not sailing in winter but he’s out, making speeches, talking it up. “I want people to know we are here,” he said.