I'm On A Boat (1933)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s March 25th. This day in 1933, the USS Sequoia is commissioned as a presidential yacht.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the long and strange history of presidential boats, from anti-rum-running efforts to secret negotiations and sketchy parties.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:06.8	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:11.8	This day, March 25th, 1933, listeners, do you know that meme of that picture of a cat sitting at a table reading a newspaper and it's got this thought bubble and it's saying I should buy a boat.
0:24.4	Does anyone know that meme? Well that's basically President Roosevelt on this day in
0:28.0	1933. He is that cat and he wants to buy a boat because this was the day March 25th that the USS Sequoia was
0:35.2	officially commissioned as a presidential yacht and then for the next 44 years or so it
0:41.2	served as a floating venue for eight presidents and I don't want to
0:45.0	spoil too much about the history of presidential yachts but like seemingly most
0:48.7	yachts these boats were a combination of really cool toys, total money pits, then used for some sketchy
0:54.8	goings-ons, just like classic boat stuff.
0:58.6	And so here to discuss not just the Sequoia, but the history of presidential boats are as always
1:04.2	Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley hello Jody.
1:08.6	Hey there. This was really fun there are a ton of interesting boats and presidents tidbits that we're going to go through but Mickey want to start with the Sequoia itself and its history is a boat and what exactly happens here at the beginning of Roosevelt's term?
1:23.7	Yeah, I'm a boat historian today.
1:27.3	So there had been a presidential yacht called the Mayflower of course, but because it cost a ton of money to operate and
1:36.3	because President Herbert Hoover wanted to present himself as a fiscally
1:40.1	responsible president he got rid of that boat.
1:43.6	Here comes in its absence the Sequoia.
1:46.0	The Sequoia was bought by the Commerce Department at the beginning of the Depression.
1:50.3	So an oil executive William Dunning had lost his entire fortune needed to offload some of his toys and so he
1:56.2	offloads his yacht to the Commerce Department who uses it for like sting operations in order to catch rum runners which is a kind of
2:07.0	amazing use of that this yacht they would invite... It's like a honey pot. Yes.
	...

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