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www.mybaycity.com November 7, 2004
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Bay City's most famous vessel, best known as the "Honey Fitz," is shown as a charter in Greenwich, Connecticut, in the mid-1980s.

Local Group Trying to Bring Home Historic Presidential Yacht "Honey Fitz"

Defoe-Built 92-Foot Luxury Vessel Confiscated by FDR was JFK's Pride

November 7, 2004       1 Comments
By: Dave Rogers

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      One of the world's most storied yachts, built in Bay City, Michigan, was owned by six Presidents of the United States and today is still proudly afloat.

      A local committee headed by Tony Dearing, editor, The Bay City Times, is studying how the historic yacht may be acquired by its hometown for display here.

      The most famous of eight Presidential yachts was built by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan, in 1931.

      The 92-foot long diesel-powered yacht was one dozens of luxury vessels built by Defoe for wealthy clients in the 1920s and 1930s, including the "Olive K" for General Motors Corp. chief engineer Charles F. Kettering, the "Elda" for Arthur Vining Davis, Alcoa executive and Florida realestate tycoon, the "Elise" for millionaire sportsman and Boston Red Sox owner Thomas A. Yawkey and the "Saramar" for Charles T. Fisher, one of the seven wealthy Fisher Body brothers.

      However, this particular vessel has had a life that would make exciting reading if made into a novel.

      
  • First known as the "Lenore" it was confiscated from its first owner by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), using his war powers during World War II.

          
  • President Harry S Truman kept the name Lenore and declared it the official Presidential yacht, along with the larger Williamsburg. The "buck" stopped aboard the vessel when Harry used it for poker parties.

          
  • President Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Ike," called the yacht the "Barbara Ann," after his granddaughter. It was used as an escort to the 255-foot Williamsburg and often carried Secret Service agents.

          
  • With the inauguration of John F. Kennedy (JFK) in 1961, the yacht wasrefitted and given the undying name "Honey Fitz," after the famed President's grandfather, the legendary Boston politician, John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald.

          
  • President Richard M. Nixon, who reportedly decided he needed a much larger vessel, dumped the yacht for a bargain $170,000 in 1970, citing the need for "economy."

          The 92-foot diesel-powered yacht was constructed for Sewell Avery, a Saginaw, Michigan, native who was chairman of the board of Montgomery Ward &Co., a catalog firm based in Chicago. The 94-ton vessel was built of mahogany and teak with a cypress bottom. Mr. Avery used the yacht in Lake Michigan and near his private estate on the Les Cheneaux islands in Lake Huron. The yacht often picked up Mr. Avery's guests who arrived at Mackinaw City by train from Chicago.

          The yacht was originally named "Lenore" after Mr. Avery's second daughter who died at age 4. It was part of the assets of the catalog firm confiscated by the federal government during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1942.

    The terrible-tempered Mr. Avery, reputed to be highly anti-Semitic, entered American legend by refusing to go along with the Roosevelt administration's order to settlea labor dispute.

          It was, after all, wartime, and FDR had suppressed freedom of speech and other civil liberties. Income tax withholding and a 100 percent tax on all personal income over $25,000 a year was levied. Private property also was being seized in the name of the war effort.

          Steel-helmeted soldiers carried Mr. Avery out of his Chicago office in his chair, supervised by U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, as a sputtering mad Avery railed: "To hell with the government, you, you New Dealer!"

          The seized ship thus became the eighth Presidential yacht listed on the government archives along with such Presidential favorites as William McKinley's Sylph, Theodore Roosevelt's Mayflower, Herbert Hoover's Sequoia, and FDR's Potomac.

          Under FDR, Mr. Avery's confiscated yacht was renamed the Lenore II and was used as a training vessel for submarine crews in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It also patrolled the Atlantic coast off Long Island, New York, during World War II.

          Ike retired the Williamsburg in 1953 in favor of the less costly smaller Lenore II and authorized its overhaul at a cost of $200,000. In the summers of 1957-58 the yacht ferried Ike to and from Newport, Rhode Island, for golfing vacations.

          In the 1960s the pleasure craft had an improbably-named crew member, Ronald C. Duck, a favorite of Jackie Kennedy. Stories have leaked out that despite Jackie's occasional visits to the ship, Marilyn Monroe, a "special friend" of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) surreptitiously had been aboard. A maintenance man who worked on the ship has reported meeting the fabulous Miss Monroe.

          After Jack Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Jackie, the famed first lady wrote to Mr. Duck, recalling fond moments aboard while he was a member of the crew.

          Kennedy's successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, did not rename the yacht and preferred it to the larger Sequoia that remained docked at the Washington Naval Yard. Mr. Johnson said he would just as soon rename the Washington Monument.

          President Richard M. Nixon named the yacht "Tricia," after his daughter and it was used briefly for cruises for injured Vietnam veterans. "Tricky Dick" dumped the vessel at auction in 1970 for a reported bargain price of $170,000.

          The yacht was purchased at auction in 1970 by the Seaport Line, New York City, where it was operated as a charter. Skipper in 1987-88 was Scott C. Parker, now a teacher in New York City. The yacht was acquired in 1993 by its enterprising skipper, Joseph B. Keating, who renamed the yacht "The Presidents" and continued to operate it as a private charter in Greenwich, Connecticut. In 1993 the yacht rented for $1,000 for luncheon cruises and $2,000 for dinner cruises, plus food and beverages.

          Capt. Keating boasted that the vessel had welcomed government officials, royalty and stage, film and television celebrities from around the world.

          The historic vessel, in deterioration after years of hard use on charters, was acquired from Keating by Robert White who had assembled a huge collection of JFK memorabilia. The $9 million take at auction in March, 1998 at the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City included $5.9 million for the yacht. The auction was a disappointment, however, failing to measure up to the nearly $35 million "Jackie O" auction held in 1996.

    The aging, historic Presidential yacht was acquired by William Kallop, aHouston, Texas, businessman who spent more than $1 million at a Mobile, Alabama boatyard to restore the vessel as it was in the JFK days. The new owner even equipped the yacht with JFK's old writing desk from the White House.

          Renamed the "Honey Fitz," the vessel went back into the water in October, 2002, and shipped out to Biloxi, Mississippi, where fireboats sprayed a welcoming tribute over the historic craft before it was opened for free public tours for a few days.

          The ship is now equipped with the latest navigational radar, communications and electronic equipment, generators and engines. All interiors are designed to fit the JFK period and are as historically accurate as possible.

          Mr. Kallops has berthed the yacht in Palm Beach, Florida, for the past couple of years where it has been used for private cruises and is a favorite of socialite partygoers.###



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    "The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers!

    newbyneoninc Says:       On March 03, 2019 at 08:01 PM
    a whole section of this yachts story was left out its whole life in conn. at the showboat
    Agree? or Disagree?


    Dave Rogers

    Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
    respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
    (Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

    More from Dave Rogers

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