Richard Nixon’s Last Night on the Presidential Yacht

This week (August 1) in 1974, President Richard Nixon was alone on the presidential yacht, The Sequoia, when he did something he had never done before.

But first some background. The Sequoia, which is now a national historic landmark, once carried presidents up and down the Potomac River, allowing them to unwind from the pressures of their job. At only 104 feet, The Sequoia is small compared with most yachts, but it is steeped in history. Built during Herbert Hoover’s administration, The Sequoia hosted Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower when they planned the D-Day invasion. Harry Truman decided to use the first atomic bomb while on The Sequoia and later hosted the world’s first nuclear arms control conference on the ship. John Kennedy celebrated his 46^th birthday, which was also his last birthday, on it, while Lyndon Johnson used it to lobby for the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

But no president used The Sequoia more than Richard Nixon, who was on it 88 times, sometimes entertaining politicians and foreign diplomats, sometimes relaxing with friends and family, and sometimes just cruising alone. On August 1, 1974, he was alone.

Earlier that evening his friend Bebe Rebozo had joined him on board and as the two men talked Nixon finally decided that he would resign from the presidency for his role in the Watergate scandal. In the wake of the revelation that Nixon had obstructed justice, his political support had imploded and articles of impeachment against him had been introduced. All hope was gone and Nixon finally knew it.

After Rebozo left, Nixon retired to the main salon where he asked that he be left alone, with the lights off. Finally, as it grew dark, Nixon sat down at the piano (added during Truman’s administration) and asked one of the ship’s crew to bring him a glass of his favorite drink, 20-year-old Ballantine Scotch. Nixon’s rule whenever he was on The Sequoia was two Scotches, and no more, but after the crewman had poured him his drink Nixon said — for the first and only time — “Leave the bottle.”

Which the crewman did, although he later asked the ship’s captain if he had done the right thing. “If the president says, ‘Leave the bottle,’ you leave the bottle,” the captain replied.

And so that night, alone in the dark, with a bottle of Scotch and the realization that he would be the first president ever to resign in disgrace, Richard Nixon played the piano for himself. The tune he kept playing was “God Bless America.”

Four days later, while on The Sequoia for the last time, Nixon informed his family of his decision to resign. Four days after that, on August 9, he did just that.