Cadet Training, Presidential Yacht Duty, and Special Assignments, 1880-1891
After extensive repairs, Despatch was recommissioned on 8 June 1880 for use as a training ship and cruised along the U.S. East Coast with cadet engineers from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland on board.
Despatch was again out of commission at Washington from 23 September-19 October 1880, then operated principally in the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay and along the U.S. East Coast from Norfolk, Virginia, to Maine until 1891, carrying out special assignments. She was frequently used by the President as the first Presidential yacht, as well as by the Secretary of the Navy and other members of the United States Cabinet, Congressional committees, members of naval boards conducting inspections, and for varied ceremonial duties. One of the most important of these ceremonial events occurred on 28 October 1886 when she transported President Grover Cleveland - including his private secretary and three members of his cabinet - to and from Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor for the dedication and unveiling of the Statue of Liberty on 28 October 1886. Over the years, she also carried despatches and men to the fleet and along the U.S. East Coast, towed into port or destroyed damaged ships and wrecks, and escorted new ships during their sea trials. From 12 December 1881-3 June 1882, Despatch cruised to Hispaniola to conduct hydrographic surveys of Samana Bay and the Yuna River.
Read more about this topic: USS Despatch (1873)
Famous quotes containing the words presidential, yacht and/or special:
“Mr. Roosevelt, this is my principal request—it is almost the last request I shall ever make of anybody. Before you leave the presidential chair, recommend Congress to submit to the Legislatures a Constitutional Amendment which will enfranchise women, and thus take your place in history with Lincoln, the great emancipator. I beg of you not to close your term of office without doing this.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“I’ve given parties that have made Indian rajahs green with envy. I’ve had prima donnas break $10,000 engagements to come to my smallest dinners. When you were still playing button back in Ohio, I entertained on a cruising trip that was so much fun that I had to sink my yacht to make my guests go home.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no views worth hearing on things in general. The farmer philosophizes in terms of crops, soils, markets, and implements, the mechanic generalizes his experiences of wood and iron, the seaman reaches similar conclusions by his own special road; and if the scholar keeps pace with these it must be by an equally virile productivity.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)