The USS Sequoia was designed in 1925 by Norwegian John Trumpy, who at the time made the most sought-after luxury yachts in the world.
The yacht, which still exists in 2019, measures 104 feet long. In its heydey it had elegant cabins of mahogany and teak with brass finishings.
The vessel is named after Sequoyah, a leader of the Cherokee Nation.
It was bought by the US government from a Texas oil tycoon in 1931, and was soon reserved for use by presidents.
The vessel was berthed at Washington Navy Yard, a short drive from the White House.
Herbert Hoover was the first president to use the vessel, embarking for Florida coast fishing expeditions on the boat.
He was so enamored of the Sequoia he even used a picture of it on his 1932 Christmas card, seen above.
However, at a time when many Americans were suffering unemployment and poverty as a result of the Great Depression, the card drew criticism from political opponents.
The Sequoia has ample crew quarters and could sleep around eight people in her three double and two single state rooms.
Here is a picture of the president's bedroom cabin, with the presidential seal above the bed.
The vessel had a spacious aft-deck, where about 40 guests could gather.
It was ideal for hosting family gatherings, or meetings with foreign leaders and their staff.
Up to 22 guests were able to dine on the vessel.
It was President Harry Truman who added the piano to the salon after becoming president in 1945.
Lyndon Baines Johnson later added a drinks bar.
Different presidents made their own adjustments to the vessel.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was confined to a wheelchair for much of his presidency, had an elevator installed so he could access each deck.
According to legend, he also decommissioned the vessel so he and Prime Minister Winston Churchill could enjoy alcoholic drinks on deck while they planned their strategy in World War II.
At the time, no alcohol was permitted on US Navy vessels.
The vessel was intended as a place presidents could use as a private retreat, and there are no official records of its guests. As a result, rumors have long circulated about what took place on board.
The vessel was ideal for hosting foreign dignitaries, far from the glare of the media.
In June 1973, President Richard Nixon hosted Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev on the Sequoia, where the two negotiated the SALT-1 nuclear arms treaty.
It was Nixon who embarked on more trips on the boat than any other president, taking more than 100 in total.
During the Watergate crisis, he used the boat as a refuge.
It was on a trip on the Sequoia that he told his family of his intention to resign the presidency, before retiring to the boat's saloon to drink scotch and play "God Bless America" on Truman's piano.
Presidents also used the yacht on private trips, where they hosted friends and family
On May 29, 1963, President John F Kennedy celebrated his 46th birthday aboard the Sequoia.
Among the guests for the dinner-party cruise were actors David Niven and Rat Pack member Peter Crawford (at the time married to Kennedy's sister).
His brother Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general, was among family who attended, alongside select members of Washington high society.
Guests later recalled it as a raucous party, with French cuisine, champagne flowing and the president even making a pass at the wife of a party guest, a prominent journalist.
The birthday party was to be his last. Seven months later, Kennedy was assassinated on an official visit to Dallas, Texas.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson used to project movies on the main deck.
Johnson would use a projector to watch Western films on board the ship.
He also used the Sequoia as a retreat to cajole potential allies and formulate policy.
On board, he hosted members of congress whom he lobbied over his landmark civil rights bill, and strategized with officials as the US became further mired in the Vietnam War.
It was Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who best explained the unique appeal of the Sequoia to a succession of presidents.
Kissinger told Newsweek in 2012:
"It's important for the President to be by himself, to remove himself from the machinery of the White House. Of course, he can get on a plane and go to Florida or anywhere else, but that requires throwing the machinery into motion.
"But here, he just can say at five o'clock: 'I'm going to the boat, I'm taking four or five people. And you don't have to call it a meeting and you don't have to prepare the papers.'"
Vowing a more modest presidency, Jimmy Carter sold the Sequoia in 1977
When Jimmy Carter took office in 1977, he sought to make good on his election pledge to strip the White House of the trappings of an "imperial presidency."
And with running costs totalling $800,000 a year, the Sequoia had to go.
Later, Carter revealed that selling the vessel was a decision he came to regret.
"People thought I was not being reverent enough to the office I was holding, that I was too much of a peanut farmer, not enough of an aristocrat, or something like that. So I think that shows that the American people want something of, an element of, image of monarchy in the White House," he told the JFK Presidential library in a 2011 interview.
After its sale, the yacht had a succession of owners.
It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, spent the '90s in a shipyard, and ran chartered cruises until 2014.
However it fell into disrepair, and, according to a CBS News report in 2016, was decaying in a Virginia dry dock, overrun by raccoons.
It is currently owned by investor Michael Cantor who is restoring the vessel. In a 2017 interview with Town and Country magazine, Cantor said he was determined to return it to its former condition.
