Ransacking History
Relief in the evolution of history
You never know what kind of story my dad is going to tell. That was no less true than ever the day after Christmas, when we were wandering around the Port of Oakland. He pointed to the USS Potomac and said he’d crawled all through that boat to do an electrical inspection. He said it was President Roosevelt’s yacht, fully restored, and asked if we wanted to go take a look.
It made no sense to me that President Roosevelt’s restored yacht was docked at the Port of Oakland, but since that’s the kind of thing you do with your dad on Christmas, and since it was a bright sunshiny day and we were happy to be outside, we said yes, Sure, Absolutely. We ducked into the office for the yacht, and there were two volunteers super eager to have us watch an introductory video and take us on a tour.
My girlfriend and I have an ongoing conversation about how much of history we were never taught. We are currently listening to a podcast called Uncivil, which tells a series of mostly unknown Civil War stories and breaks apart long told false narratives. The short summary so far is that the Confederate Flag that we know was never a deep part of Southern Culture and that no one, except the residents of a small strange island off the coast of Georgia called Sapelo Island, was ever able to get and hold onto their 40 acres and a mule.
The yacht had been through quite a bit on its journey from Washington D.C. to Oakland. It was sold several times by people that used to be famous. It was used for drug running. At that point in the story I thought well, that makes sense. Oakland is a landing place. It was.a destination on the Underground Railroad and a home for the Black Panthers.
The yacht was nearly destroyed. Eventually President Ronald Reagan provided funds for a renovation, and now it’s existence relies of volunteers and the money they get from tours. I think I had some vague notions of President Roosevelt spending time on a yacht, but I did not know it was a critical part of his presidency — a place where international agreements were made. I did not know that Eleanor never went on it with him because of a childhood sailing trauma that involved her being thrown from a sinking boat to a life raft. I did not know that President Roosevelt was so strong that he used a hand operated elevator to pull himself and his wheelchair up to the second level of the yacht.
Herb, our tour guide, very specifically pointed out that the yacht was a humble place. President Roosevelt came from money and he did not feel the need to flaunt his wealth by adding anything fancy to the accommodations. Herb went out of his way to emphasize President Roosevelt’s self-sufficiency. Herb is a retired doctor, and enjoys his volunteer time. At the end of our walk through we stood on the deck and looked out at the two boats nearby; the USNS John Glenn and the Relief. Herb told us to look up videos of the John Glenn, which hosts crazy boats that look like tanks that can drive right off the Glenn and into the water. Herb told us that the Glenn is always at the ready, staffed by civilian navy personnel, but has never been used.
My dad asked about the Relief, which was docked in between the Potomac and the Glenn. Herb told us about how before there were lighthouses there were boats like the Relief, which provided light in the darkness to show other ships the way. Herb told us someone lived aboard the Relief to take care of it, and provide education about its restoration.
Leadership, strength, war, and light.
At a time when history is being ransacked and journalists are being threatened, there are so many people working to keep our history alive. The producers of Uncivil travelled all over the country to tell their stories. One of them, about former slaves having their land stolen from them, takes place on Sapelo Island which, oddly enough, was the location of a wedding I went to many years ago. We all stayed in a mansion that was formerly owned by RJ Reynolds; it was a very odd place that boasted an entire floor decorated like a circus tent and had a bowling alley in its basement. The rental of the mansion supported a local nature conservancy; an evolution of stolen land.
The island can only be reached by small ferry, and I remember a haunting ferry captain who told us that Sapelo was a place where you must be aligned with spiritual ancestors.
I remember that island as being very dark — barely touched by the lights on land. History evolves as you learn more and we’re not allowing all of the light in.
For most of the wedding guests, I imagine it will always remain a strange place where they spent the weekend and got some bowling in. But when you poke around a Port in your hometown and follow your dad on a holiday tour through history you realize that these people, these stories, and this history is a relief light.
That’s the point, right?
xoxo
Learn more about the USS Potomac, if you like!
A little bit about the Relief and the lightship society.
And finally - if you haven’t already, give Uncivil a listen: