At the end of World War II, USS Williamsburg took over from USS Potomac as the presidential yacht. Harry Truman was particularly fond — he took her to Key West for a vacation in 1951, and used her as a base for talks with British prime minister Winston Churchill and Mexican president Miguel Alemán. Truman’s successor, Dwight Eisenhower was less enamoured and had her decommissioned after just one cruise aboard. The 74 metre presidential yacht was later converted into an oceanographic research vessel by the National Science Foundation, and plans were made to restore her further, but she met an unfortunate end when she sank in her moorings at La Spezia harbour in 2015, and was subsequently scrapped in 2016.
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