Block Island Times

ICYMI: Presidential sibling visited Block Island this summer

With the hustle and bustle of a particularly fraught summer come and gone, there’s now time to reflect back on one of this season’s more interesting visitors.
Freedom, the sister ship of presidential yacht Sequoia, made its way into Great Salt Pond on Sunday, July 12. The 104-foot vessel, which is nearly identical to the yacht that served every president from Herbert Hoover to Gerald Ford, currently calls Newport home.
Both yachts were designed by John Trumpy (yes, Trumpy), and built at Mathis Yacht Building Co. in Camden, N.J.— Sequoia in 1925 and Freedom a year later.
While Sequoia — known as the “floating White House” — hosted fishing trips for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and served as the site of John F. Kennedy’s final birthday party. Freedom has its own interesting history. It was once owned by Jessie Woolworth Donahue, whose father F.W. Woolworth made a fortune via his chain of retail stores. Donahue was close to former British King Edward VIII, who famously abdicated the throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson. (Donahue’s son was later to reportedly carry on an affair with Simpson.)
Freedom was later sold, renamed Sunset, and spent six decades in Miami, Florida.

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