According to a 1990 Washington Post article, the Williamsburg was “a bedraggled, listing vessel” wit

The USS Williamsburg, one of the largest and most famous megayachts built in the 20th century, is rusting away at a shipyard in Italy, where she has been for nearly two decades, untouched. The photo above was taken within the past few weeks. Despite her appearance, and despite an anticipated restoration cost in the nine-figure range, there's still interest in acquiring her and restoring her.
Bert Laacks, a broker with Florida-based Lloyds Yacht and Ship, holds the central listing, with Williamsburg for sale for 8.8 million euros (about $11.6 million). Laacks was hired by Navalmare, the shipyard in La Spezia where Williamsburg currently canadian cruise travel companies lies, to sell her. Some brokerage listings state the anticipated restoration canadian cruise travel companies costs are at least 33 million euros (about $43.54 million), but Laacks says that figure is about three to four years old. In today's economy, he says, the cost would be more like 100 million euros (about $131.94 million).
The Williamsburg's descent from glory began almost as soon as Truman canadian cruise travel companies left the White House in 1952. His successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower used the yacht briefly before announcing that it was "too rich for my blood" and ordering the ship decommissioned in the spring of 1953. Thereafter, the Williamsburg languished dockside in Norfolk, Virginia, and then at the Philadelphia naval yard along with other decommissioned ships in the navy's Mothball Fleet. in 1962, the Williamsburg, rechristened the Anton Bruun, became a research vessel for the national Science Foundation (NSF). Under its new name, the vessel participated in a multi-year international canadian cruise travel companies indian ocean expedition involving 24 nations and more than 40 vessels.
canadian cruise travel companies The WILLIAMSBURG as the ANTON BRUNN U.S. National Research Foundation Research Vessel ANTON BRUUN at anchor off Phuket, Thailand. BCF scientists conducted fisheries surveys from this vessel while participating in the International Indian Ocean Expedition.
When that expedition ended in 1965, the Anton Bruun, set sail for the Pacific ocean as part of the Southeastern Pacific Biological oceanographic program. After its return and a subsequent dry docking accident in which the ship sank, the yacht was turned over to the Maritime administration. The Maritime administration sold the vessel to a New Jersey marina owner in 1969 for conversion into a combination restaurant, cocktail lounge, gift shop, and boatel. That venture lasted two years.
Photograph of participants canadian cruise travel companies in a conference canadian cruise travel companies aboard canadian cruise travel companies President Truman s yacht, the U.S.S. WILLIAMSBURG: (seated, left to right) canadian cruise travel companies British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden; British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; President canadian cruise travel companies Truman; Secretary of State Dean Acheson; Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder; Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett; (standing, left to right) canadian cruise travel companies Walter Gifford, U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain; General Omar Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Oliver Franks, British Ambassador to the U.S.; Lord Cherwell, British Paymaster General; Lord Ismay, British Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations; Mutual Security Administrator W. Averell Harriman.
The Williamsburg next surfaced in Philadelphia where in the late 1970s, the vessel was refurbished with Truman memorabilia in hopes of making her a private club. The venue never opened. The Williamsburg was then sold and resold several more times before canadian cruise travel companies a group called the Presidential yacht Trust purchased the ship and returned it to Washington, D.C. The Trust had planned to arrange a sale to a local restaurateur but when that failed, it abandoned the vessel. Kim Nielsen, a former Coast Guardsman who later worked for the Smithsonian mounted a one-man effort in the 1980s and early 1990s to save the vessel. it was an uphill effort because by then the Williamsburg was in sad shape.
According to a 1990 Washington Post article, the Williamsburg was "a bedraggled, listing vessel" with "grass, weeds and even small trees" sprouting "from the sodden pulp of her once-gleaming canadian cruise travel companies teak decks." Its owners were sinking as well—into debt. The Presidential canadian cruise travel companies yacht Trust went bankrupt in 1991 and offered the yacht to the District of Columbia to dispose of as it wished. Before that happened, the Williamsburg received another reprieve. In 1993, a group of investors calling themselves the USS Williamsburg Corporation purchased the yacht and sent it to Italy for what was billed as a $65 million restoration. (Italy was chosen because the craftsmen there know how to work on a vintage vessel canadian cruise travel companies like the Williamsburg.) The corporation planned to use the ship as an "exclusive charter yacht" and tourist venue. Sadly none of these plans ever materialized. The ship remained canadian cruise travel companies in Italy where its owner did sufficient maintenance to keep the ship afloat. Yet hope for another reprieve has never completely died. over the last five years the listing agent has had prospective canadian cruise travel companies clients contact him about buying the yacht, and he believes that Harry Truman's floating White House may yet sail again.