Mini Histories Articles

FDR’s Texas Fishing Trip – May 1937

FDR’s Texas Fishing Trip – May 1937

USS POTOMAC MINI-HISTORY BY WALTER ABERNATHY FDR’s Texas Fishing Trip - May 1937 After dinner on April 27, 1937, FDR left the White House to overnight on his special train en route to New Orleans and a rendezvous with his Presidential Yacht USS Potomac. The train...

read more
Grounded at Shangri-La

Grounded at Shangri-La

In the fall of 1941 after five years of maritime service including on ocean waters, a panel of Coast Guard inspectors suddenly announced that the USS Potomac was unseaworthy.  The cause given was that she was “top heavy” with a new deck added when...

read more
Potomac’s Filipino Mess Crew

Potomac’s Filipino Mess Crew

The Spanish-American conflict was a “splendid little war[1]” that marked America’s entry as an imperial power into world affairs.  Coincidentally that same splendid little war was the origin of the USS Potomac’s all-Filipino mess crew and...

read more