The Presidential Yacht Mayflower

This watercolor by Alfred Addy is of the Presidential yacht, the Mayflower. Addy grew up in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States in 1906, where he lived and painted mostly in the northeast. Originally purchased by the U.S. Navy in 1898, the Mayflower was active during the Spanish-American War. In 1905 the ship was commissioned as the presidential yacht serving Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Warren G. Harding, but President Herbert Hoover decommissioned the vessel in 1929 due to its expense. After spending years in private ownership, the Mayflower was purchased again by the Navy in 1942 and rechristened the USS Butte. After the end of the Second World War, the ship was decommissioned, passed into private ownership and eventually was involved in relocating Jewish refugees to Israel. The Mayflower was likely the only vessel to have served in the Spanish-American War as well as both World Wars and was broken up in 1955.