As the USS Potomac took off from its home slip in Oakland last Friday, taking its place in San Francisco Fleet Week’s Parade of Ships, it quietly celebrated its own special milestone — the 90th anniversary of it being commissioned as a United States Navy vessel and given its new name.
The 165-foot steel-hulled United States Coast Guard cutter Electra, which hunted down rumrunners and bootleggers, would go on to ferry royalty, dignitaries and their family members as a presidential yacht, the USS Potomac, for then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Its history is full of “twists and turns … not only during FDR’s time, but afterward,” said Jennifer Pettley, executive director of the USS Potomac Association, the nonprofit group that restored and now owns, operates and maintains the USS Potomac. It was used in the Bahamas, “where it became submerged and then raised up to journey through the Panama Canal.” Elvis Presley purchased it in 1964 and then donated it to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Then, there was “the drug-running operation it was caught up in in the 1980s, when it was impounded by the Drug Enforcement Administration,” Pettley said. The Port of Oakland acquired it for $15,000 in the early 1980s through an auction sale.
“It’s endless,” she said. “Someone should do a miniseries. Potomac’s story has everything!”
Today, the 92-year-old ship’s mission is quite placid by comparison.
Designated as a national historic landmark, it serves as an educational platform spotlighting the Franklin D. Roosevelt era during a consequential time in our nation’s history — the Great Depression and World War II.
For history and maritime lovers alike, the USS Potomac offers dockside tours, sightseeing and history cruises, as well as themed cruises. It also hosts 2,000 students, usually fifth graders, annually.
Then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt relaxes on the custom fantail settee he helped design on the USS Potomac, now permanently docked in Oakland. (Courtesy of the USS Potomac Association)
On board this particular Fleet Week day, there were 20 invited young active members of the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Coast Guard, many stationed in Alameda and many who had never made this special trip before. They would later stand at attention and perform “honors” by saluting dignitaries on the waterfront.
Along with them were 15 USS Potomac crew members and docents and almost 60 paying guests spread out over two decks, mingling with each other, sipping mimosas, nibbling on fresh fruit and pastries and admiring the spectacular waterfront and view of the Marin Headlands as the ship idled in the calm waters just outside the Golden Gate Bridge, waiting for the “big boys” of the parade to arrive.
And, soon enough, the massive gray bows of two United States Navy vessels — the USS Ashland from San Diego and the USS Cape St. George from Everett, Washington — broke through the fog to suddenly appear on the horizon.
With sailors manning their rails, the two ships, followed by United States Coast Guard cutters Munro and Benjamin Bottoms from San Pedro, smoothly passed by the USS Potomac as it waited to join the formation.
Hands-down, what makes this ship fascinating is its history, but so are its many specific accessible design adaptations for the president who had contracted a paralytic disease, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down at age 39.
Roosevelt, an experienced sailor and a former assistant secretary of the Navy, helped design the layout of the USS Potomac to make it more accessible for him.
• Living quarters on main deck. To ensure the president could be safely extracted in an emergency and for his own ease in getting around the ship, the Secret Service and Navy shipwrights made sure his primary living spaces were located on the main deck.
• The presidential stateroom. Roosevelt wanted a simple single bed constructed to a specific height so that he could swing his torso to and from his wheelchair easily.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s specially designed single bed on the main deck of the USS Potomac. (Photo by PJ Bremier)
The restored USS Potomac is docked near Jack London Square in Oakland. (Photo by Valary Bremier)
Then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt relaxes on the custom fantail settee he helped design on the USS Potomac, now permanently docked in Oakland. (Courtesy of the USS Potomac Association)
The engine room aboard the USS Potomac is seen during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
The crew quarters aboard the USS Potomac are seen during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
A portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt is displayed aboard the USS Potomac during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
A miniature model of the USS Potomac is displayed inside the USS Potomac Visitor Center on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
The bathroom of the President’s Stateroom aboard the USS Potomac is seen during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
The radio room aboard the USS Potomac is seen during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
An original bell of the USS Potomac is displayed aboard the ship on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
A guest stateroom aboard the USS Potomac is seen during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
The crew quarters aboard the USS Potomac are seen during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
A blueprint of the USS Potomac is displayed inside the USS Potomac Visitor Center on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Visitors board the USS Potomac during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
John Eichel, a docent for the USS Potomac Association, gives a tour of the USS Potomac on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
John Eichel, a docent for the USS Potomac Association, gives a tour of the USS Potomac on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
John Eichel, a docent for the USS Potomac Association, center, gives a tour of the USS Potomac on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
An interior view of the President’s Stateroom aboard the USS Potomac is seen during a tour on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
A portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt is displayed inside the USS Potomac Visitor Center on May 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
The USS Potomac is viewed from the Port of Oakland’s free monthly cruise, Friday evening, June 14, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. The ship was known as the Floating White House during the term of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ John A.B. Dillard Jr seen from the historic U.S. Presidential yacht, the USS Potomac, take part in the Parade of Ships during the San Francisco Fleet Week in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
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Franklin D. Roosevelt’s specially designed single bed on the main deck of the USS Potomac. (Photo by PJ Bremier)
• The president’s private bathroom. Bathtubs were rare on Navy ships, but this one, located behind a door near the end of his bed, was a custom, heavy-duty stainless-steel bathtub built into the floor. According to USS Potomac docent coordinator Joe Winkel, this allowed the president to sit on the side platform and bathe himself without the need for assistance.
• The fantail settee. This custom, elongated leather (now Naugahyde) couch on the shaded aft, or rear, deck was co-designed by Roosevelt and allowed him to stretch out his legs and converse with guests at eye level. According to Winkel, it was one of the president’s favorite spaces where, when he relaxed in the center of the settee, he was able to enjoy wide views of the Chesapeake Bay.
• The false smokestack hoist. The manual rope-and-pulley elevator hidden inside the dummy rear smokestack functioned as a primary vertical escape route even in a power outage. If the main deck became compromised in an emergency, the elevator provided a direct conduit to the upper deck’s lifeboats.
• The main saloon. Roosevelt specified that the main saloon should act as a central workspace, legislative office and formal dining room.
• The radio room. Although there was a highly sophisticated radio room onboard for official communications between the Pentagon and world leaders, it’s believed that his broadcast from the Potomac on March 29, 1941, in which he called upon Americans to have “courage and more courage,” was likely made from his stateroom or the aft section of the ship, where there was more room to accommodate a wheelchair and multiple microphones.
Details: Dockside tours of the USS Potomac are at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Sundays at 540 Water St. in Oakland. Tickets for one-hour docent-led dockside tours cost $20 for adults or $10 for kids. Children ages 9 and younger are admitted free. Cruise times, dates and ticket prices vary. For more information, call 510-627-1215 or go to usspotomac.org.
PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and entertaining topics every Saturday. She may be contacted at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914, or at pj@pjbremier.com.