U.S.S. SEQUOIA COMMISSIONED BY U.S. NAVY
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On March 25, 1933, the U.S.S. Sequoia* was commissioned by the United States Navy for the service of the President of the United States. For the previous two years, President Herbert Hoover had used it as a fishing boat.
Because of his confinement to a wheelchair, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had an elevator installed between the upper and lower decks.
President Lyndon B. Johnson, an admirer of FDR, did not need the elevator so had it converted into a liquor bar.
LBJ enjoyed sitting on the deck of the Sequoia at night watching movies projected on the white smokestack.
*U.S.S. Sequoia (AG-23) was built in Camden, NJ in 1925 at a cost of $200,000. USSS served 8 POTUS until sold by auction by order of President Jimmy Carter in 1977.
It was nicknamed "the floating White House" & named after the leader of the Cherokee Nation. JFK celebrated his 46th birthday on board.
