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Trumpy and Sons History
Trumpy and Sons
The Story
Some boats have stage presence. When they enter a harbor, every head turns. Trumpy motor yachts have that hard-to-define appeal. Like a Frank Lloyd Wright house or a Rolls Royce, they are a product of their time yet possess a timeless appeal.
Built from the 1920s to 1970s, Trumpy yachts are a study in elegance. Their sleek profile, crisp white hulls and polished wood detailing exude luxury and leisure.
Although more than 400 were built, each Trumpy was meticulously handcrafted to the owner’s specifications. While every Trumpy is unique, the boats have a signature look and always the essential Trumpy embellishment: carved wood scrollwork on the bow that, on close inspection, incorporates a capital T. In their heyday, the boats were de rigueur for members of the aristocracy, among them aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, the Chrysler family and the Duponts.
The name comes from Norwegian-born Naval architect John Trumpy Sr., who began building yachts in Camden Yard in Gloucester City, N.J., but in 1947, Trumpy & Sons moved their shipbuilding operation to Annapolis, Md. When Trumpy Sr. died in 1963, his son John Jr. continued the tradition until 1974, when a triple play of rising costs, labor strikes and the popularity of fiberglass put him out of business.
Perhaps the most famous Trumpy was the USS Sequoia, built in 1925 and now a designated National Historic Landmark. It might also be the most famous boat in the United States. The elegant 104-foot vessel served as the U.S. presidential yacht from the Herbert Hoover administration in the 1930s until Jimmy Carter had it auctioned off in 1977 for $286,000.
The Sequoia was the setting for many notable events: FDR and Eisenhower planned D-Day onboard; Truman made the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, Kennedy celebrated his last birthday, and Nixon spent his last night as president aboard (accompanied by a bottle of whiskey) before resigning the next day.
Truman reportedly had a fit of rage onboard when he lost a poker game and damaged the table with a cigar cutter. In a calmer moment he had a piano installed in the main salon that he and Nixon enjoyed playing (although in separate decades). Hoover raised some hackles by featuring the Sequoia on the 1932 White House Christmas card at a time when so many Americans were struggling to buy food during the Great Depression.
Trumpys are the ultimate Dream Boats. It’s easy to envisage a leisurely, even presidential afternoon aboard, dining in formal elegance or fishing off the back deck. Many of these boats have been lovingly cared for over the years and still turn heads in the Marina.
Trumpy and Sons
Trumpy Yachts Splendor
The man behind the brand, John Trumpy was born in Norway. He was the fourth generation of boat builders in his family and, after naval architect training at home and in Germany, Trumpy immigrated to America in 1908. There he worked at boatyards in New York and New Jersey. In 1910 he joined Mathis in N.J. as a partner and also became their naval architect. (Mathis had started the company about 10 years earlier.)
Later Trumpy became Mathis’s general manager and in 1939, following Mathis’s death, became Mathis’s sole owner. In 1943, he re-named the Mathis Yacht Building Company, John Trumpy & Sons. He and his family moved the company to Annapolis, Md., in 1947. Sadly, the business was closed in 1973.We cruised slowly and in a high degree of comfort. Aboard a 76-foot stately yacht, once one of the largest yachts in America.
Trumpy yachts are wooden masterpieces, hand crafted and custom-built to perfection by master shipwrights in Annapolis, Maryland. With a mere glance, knowledgeable boaters quickly spot the distinctive “T” embossed on each Trumpy yacht’s bow and knew they just might want to take a second look at her.
Built for the rich and famous, the yachts enabled a glamorous, comfortable lifestyle. People like Marilyn Monroe experienced the Trumpy brand both in real life (as President Kennedy’s rumored guest aboard the Trumpy yacht, Sequoia) and on film (when the Trumpy-built Enticer appeared with her in Some Like It Hot). It seems that folks from every important corner of American society including presidents, media moguls, entertainers and industrialists have owned, enjoyed or been hosted aboard a Trumpy.
The one pictured above I had the pleasure of crusing on she was hand-made of double planked wood with no real worries about her weight. A displacement boat, designed to travel in the water (rather than plane atop it), her hull was designed to ride, really glide, through the water with minimum fuss. This Trumpy yacht was, as all are, a wonderfully executed naval design for comfortable shallow-water, low-speed cruising.
Honestly, wooden boats really do ride through the water differently than steel or fiberglass boats. All the parts that make up a screwed and bolted together wood boat, give slightly when underway. Behind the wheel or as a guest in the main salon, I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful wooden coasting experience.
We cruised towards the City of Baltimore on the Patapsco River, which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. As my eyes studied this Trumpy’s amazing details, I was under the spell of the most finely crafted wooden yacht built in 1964.
She was hull number 415 out a total of 448 built before the yard hung up its tools for the last time. Yet despite her age, her General Motors diesels moved her easily under the owner’s command. Long but blessed with a good amount of windage for a shallow-draft displacement hull, her owner knew his yacht and made it look easy. We were just out for a pleasure cruise and we all savored the experience this rare Trumpy yacht provided.
Then the owner looked at me and offered the helm. I took the wheel and found she was easy to maneuver. My overall impression was one of old-world craftsmanship within a hull shape that was made for cruising protected waters.
Not so long ago, luxury yachts were the preferred transport for eastern seaboard blue-bloods, escaping the cold or returning to their northern homes after a balmy Miami winter. Those who sojourned in luxury’s pinnacle typically did it aboard a John Trumpy & Sons yacht. Today there are very few examples left, and if you get the opportunity to get aboard one of these beauties, take it.
Famous Trumpy Yachts
Sequoia The Presidential Yacht 1931
In 1931, Hoover called upon the Department of Commerce to put the Sequoia II at his disposal. Hoover used the Sequoia II on April 25, 1931, for a trip between Washington, D.C and Cape Henry, Virginia. Hoover became very fond of the Sequoia II and even used a photo of it on his 1932 Christmas card. He took a lot of criticism at a time when many Americans were in bread lines.
After his inauguration on March 4,1933, President Franklin Roosevelt spread the word around various government departments that, if it was available, he wanted the Sequoia II as his official presidential yacht. On March 23, 1933, the yacht became the official presidential yacht. Roosevelt liked to fish for perch on the Potomac River. On one of his fishing trips, he came by limousine to Deltaville, Virginia and met the yacht Sequoia II at the wharf at the end of North End road. Roosevelt liked to fish the wrecks in the Chesapeake Bay. Because Franklin D. Roosevelt was wheelchair bound, he had an elevator installed. Oddly, Lyndon Johnson had the elevator removed, and a bar installed in its place.
Roosevelt’s first invited guest was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. The president liked to cruise with cabinet members, foreign dignitaries and close friends. Joseph Kennedy, Sr., was one of those friends. The Sequoia II served President Roosevelt for nine years. In 1942, the Sequoia II was transferred to the US Coast Guard, and her name was changed to the Sequoia.
President Truman invited British Prime Minister Clement Atlee, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King and US Secretary of State James Byrnes for a cruise on Armistice Day, November 11,1945. President Eisenhower utilized the Sequoia rarely and, essentially, only for official business. Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of British Defense, was one of his few guests in 1959.
The private motor yacht of "The Aviator" subject Howard Hughes is in the Palm Beach, Florida area for restoration. Virtually unchanged from the day it was built in 1939, the yacht offers a glimpse into the life of the reclusive billionaire through one of his lesser known interests, yachting.
The legendary Howard Hughes had many personas…record-setting aviator, motion picture producer, billionaire tycoon…yachting enthusiast? That’s right, according to John Bermingham, New York antiques dealer and current owner of “Eleanor”, a 1939 Trumpy motor yacht which belonged to Hughes in the 1950’s and kept at his ready in Miami, Florida for entertaining friends and clients.
The yacht was known as “Vita” when Hughes owned her and has had several name changes since, but besides the name, little else about "Eleanor" is different from the day she was launched in Camden, New Jersey over 64 years ago. The 71’ yacht is one of only 15 or so Trumpy motor yachts in existence from before World War II, and certainly one of the most faithfully maintained and restored, according to Bermingham. “The staterooms have even retained their original twin-bunk arrangement and original mahogany furniture so often removed in remodeling projects. It’s a throwback to more modest times… before mega-yachts and fiberglass”. The interior of the “saloon” or deck-house is paneled in richly varnished mahogany, mounted with German-silver fittings shaped like seashells which pivot to allow a brass crank to roll each window up and down.
The feel of the boat is decidedly “40’s” with slip-covered club chairs and custom built furniture all in a slightly “deco” style. The yacht originally had a crew of three and there are "call-buttons" everywhere, mounted into walls and furniture to ensure that first class service was always within Hughes' reach.