Sea Cloud

Sea Cloud was built in Kiel, Germany, as a barque for Marjorie Merriweather Post and her second husband Edward F. Hutton of Wall Street's E. F. Hutton & Co. The yacht interiors and features were personally designed by Post, who took a course in marine engineering, and had full size interior mocks-ups done in a New York warehouse. She was launched in 1931 as Hussar V as a replacement for . At the time of her construction, she was the largest private yacht in the world. The maiden voyage was in November 1931, from the shipyard in Germany to Bermuda, where the ship was received by Hutton and Post on November 30, 1931. == Sea Cloud and "Floating Embassy" ==

In 1935, the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph E. Davies, married Marjorie Merriweather Post. ==Coast Guard service==

When Mrs. Davies first offered the ship to the U.S. Department of the Navy in 1941, the Navy turned her down. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt objected to the ship entering service, remarking that the ship was too beautiful to be sacrificed. On January 7, 1942, the Navy reassessed its position and chartered the ship for $1 per year. The Navy sent Sea Cloud from Georgetown, South Carolina, to the United States Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland, to be refitted as a "weather observation station vessel", and had the four masts removed and hull painted battleship gray. Sea Cloud was commissioned as a United States Coast Guard Cutter on April 4, 1942, and assigned to the Eastern Sea Frontier, with a permanent home port in Boston. During 1942, Sea Cloud mostly served as a weather ship at Weather Patrol Station Number Two (position ). On June 6, 1942, the ship rescued eight survivors from the schooner Maria da Gloria. On August 3, 1942, and August 4, 1942, Sea Cloud served at Weather Patrol Station Number One while was converted to a weather ship. ==Naval service==

In 1943, the Navy asked for control of Sea Cloud and Nourmahal, another former yacht converted into a weather ship. On April 9, 1943, the United States Navy commissioned Sea Cloud as USS Sea Cloud (IX-99), though she maintained a Coast Guard crew. Within a few months, 50 black sailors, including two officers, were stationed aboard Sea Cloud. He was able to paint and sketch while in the Coast Guard, notably his War Series. ==Return to civilian service==

Following her return, Sea Cloud received a reassembled rigging in 1947, and a new set of twenty-nine sails in 1949. He renamed the ship Angelita after his daughter Angelita Trujillo. The yacht served as a houseboat and government office. Following Trujillo's assassination on May 30, 1961, his family attempted to smuggle themselves and Trujillo's body to the Canary Islands aboard Angelita, but were forced back by the Dominican Republic's new government. In 2011, the Sea Cloud underwent extensive renovations at the MWB-Werft, Bremerhaven. She is still operating as a cruise ship. ==Gallery==

File:Sea Cloud Cabin 1.jpg|Marjorie Merriweather Post Cabin 1 File:Sea Cloud cabin.jpg|E.F. Hutton Cabin 2 File:Carlton Skinner on Sea Cloud.jpg|LT Carlton Skinner with several of his black crewmembers on Sea Cloud File:Sea Cloud.jpg|Sea Cloud with masts removed and camouflaged in grey for Coast Guard service File:Sea Cloud eagle.jpg|Eagle Figurehead File:Sea cloud bridge.jpg|Wheelhouse with U.S. Naval service commendation File:Sea Cloud (ship, 1931) IMO 8843446, in Split, on 2011-09-30, bow.jpgMoored in Split, Croatia, in 2011 ==See also==