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Briefing - The President Visits the Fleet
One of the perquisites of being president is that you "own" the Navy, and can
enjoy a visit to one of "your" warships whenever you want. Oddly, it
seems to have taken a while before a President realized this.
The first recorded presidential visit to a warship appears to have been by John
Tyler (1841-1845), who took a ride in the new steam sloop Unfortunately,
during his visit, on February 28th, the ship's new breech-loading
cannon exploded, killing the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Navy, and
several other dignitaries, this was not an enjoyable occasion (except perhaps
for the President, who missed being killed because he was below decks, wooing
the young woman who would shortly become his second wife, though the accident
did kill his prospective father-in-law). Save for an unknown number of
visits to the fleet by during the Civil War, presidential visits to warships
were pretty sparse for more than a half-century. In fact, it seems likely
that Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) made more visits to commissioned naval
vessels � excluding yachts � than all his predecessors combined save , six
visits to a total of four different battleships and a submarine in a little
less than eight years in office. The next five presidents, Taft
(1909-1913), Wilson (1913-1921), Harding (1921-1923), Coolidge (1923-1929), and
Hoover (1929-1933), reverted to a non-visitation policy, and among them
apparently racked up only a half-dozen visits in 24 years in office (used here,
"visits" does not count round trips, with time spent ashore)..
Then came Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945). An able sailor, F.D.R.,
had a deep love for the sea, and in the course of his lifetime sailed aboard or
visited more than 100 sea going vessels, many of them more than once. No
prior president ever visited more commissioned naval vessels than did F.D.R,
even allowing for the fact that he was in office for somewhat more than
12 years (and naturally omitting numerous visits when he served as Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, 1913-1920). F.D.R. visited American warships at
least 26 times during his presidency, for an average of about once every 5.6
months during the approximately 145 months he was in office; this was slightly
less than the average of one every 5 months that he set while Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, having visited commissioned U.S. warships on at least 18
occasions in about 90 months in office.
F.D.R.'s Presidential Visits to Warships *
BB-61 once � 1943
CA-30 four times � 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939
CA-31 once � 1941
CA-33 once � 1935
CA-35 twice � 1933, 1936
CA-37 thrice � 1939, 1940, 1941
CA-68 once � 1944
CA-71 once � 1945
CL-13 once � 1943
CL-41 once � 1938
DD-154 Ellis once � 1933
DD-348 Farragut once � 1935
DD-354 Monoghan once � 1936
DD-357 Selfridge once � 1937
DD-358 McDougal once � 1941
DD-360 Phelps once � 1937
DD-361
DD-362 Moffett once � 1941
DD-365 Cummings once � 1944
DD-402 Mayrant once � 1941
* This lists all confirmed visits by F.D.R. to commissioned American
warships. It almost certainly misses a few. Visits ranged in length
from a few hours to several weeks, such as during the President's month-long
voyage to in 1936; round trips or multiple comings and goings while on a single
voyage, are counted as one visit. Omitted are numerous visits to the
commissioned yachts Sequoia (1933-1936) and (1936-1945), that served
as the presidential yacht, as well as to various commissioned auxiliaries,
Coast Guard vessels, and, naturally, visits to foreign warships, such as HM
Battleships Prince of Wales and King George V or the French
destroyer La Gazelle.
Some of F.D.R.'s visits to warships were intended to show support for expanding
the fleet. Relishing his role as Commander-in-Chief, F.D.R. also
occasionally boarded ship to review the fleet or observe maneuvers. On
other occasions he used warships to travel abroad for diplomatic or military
conferences. For example, his visit to Indianapolis in 1936 was
on the occasion of his Latin American tour; as the Senior Pollywog aboard, the
President was initiated into the mysteries of the deep by Neptunus Rex himself
(in 1938, while on a voyage to the Galapagos in Houston, F.D.R.
presided over the ceremonies as the Senior Shellback). In 1940 took him
to Argentia Bay, where he transferred to McDougal which took him to
meet Churchill aboard HMS Prince of took him to the and Teheran
Conferences with allied leaders, and Baltimore to the Honolulu
Conference with senior officers in the Pacific. Of course, since F.D.R.
enjoyed a good sea voyage and fishing trip, the Navy afforded him the
opportunity to undertake both; not only was he a fine angler, but his fishing
expeditions to exotic places, such as the Galapagos, added several new species
to the catalog of life in the sea. After Pearl Harbor, security concerns
and the demands for every available vessel to be deployed forward resulted in
F.D.R. rarely visiting a ship other than to take passage overseas.
As President, F.D.R. seems to have had a predilection for heavy cruisers, which
accounted for 13 of the visits, whereas he seems to have visited only one
battleship, ; perhaps he got his fill of battlewagons while Assistant
Secretary, having visited five. His favorite ship was which the press
nicknamed "The Floating White House." The famous picture of him wearing
his boat cloak on her bridge was taken when he reviewed the fleet in The ship's
loss in action with Japanese surface vessels early on the morning of , seems to
have greatly affected him, as he knew many of her crew and considered them
shipmates. In addition to (to a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945), and
Monoghan (in the typhoon of
The President himself had a dangerous moment while traveling in the battleship
in 1943, en route to the Cairo Conference. During a routine training
drill an escorting destroyer accidentally fired a torpedo that for a few
moments seemed likely to hit the new battlewagon. A quick thinking
helmsman managed to turn out of harm's way.
For a while it looked as though F.D.R. had set a precedent for presidential
visits to warships. Harry S Truman (1945-1953) managed at least five
visits while in office, and Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961), although an Army
man did a commendable six. And then came John F. Kennedy (1961-1963), who
managed to come close to F.D.R.'s record, visiting at least five warships
during his 33 months in office, for an average of about once every 6.8 months.
J.F.K.'s Visits
CV-34 Oriskany, once � 1963
CV-63
DD-850 Joseph P Kennedy Jr., once � 1962
SS-342 Chopper, once � 1962
SSBN-610 Thomas A. Edison, once �
1963
_
Note: Again, these are confirmed visits, and the list omits visits to
the U.S.C.G.C. Eagle (1962) and some foreign vessels.
Alas, after J.F.K. the Navy's popularity with presidents appears to have
declined. This is somewhat odd, given that five of the subsequent eight
presidents had served in the Navy. Of the "Sailor Presidents," Lyndon B.
Johnson (1963-1969) and Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974) seem to have visited only
one warship apiece, while Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977) apparently visited none,
and James E. Carter (1977-1981), an Annapolis graduate no less, only two, a
figure matched by George H. W. Bush (1989-1993). Of the other recent
presidents, Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), managed three visits to warships in
eight years, while William J. Clinton (1991-2001) did five in a like term, and
George W. Bush (2001-), two as of mid-2007, albeit that one he used as a base
of operations over several weeks during Hurricane Katrina recovery operations..
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