Marjorie Merriweather Post - even her name sounds like a character from a daytime soap - was the staggeringly wealthy heiress to the General Foods breakfast cereal (Kellogg’s...) fortune. Her father, the company’s founder, had no sons so Marjorie was the sole heir. But as a woman in the early 20th Century, poor Marjorie could only influence the company, but could play no direct role in its management.

Things changed though for Marjorie after she ditched her first husband (and two children) and met and was smitten by the dashing stockbroker/cum financier, Edward F Hutton. Hutton had made his fortune and name by acting very quickly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and selling assets (his and his clients) ahead of the crowd. Hutton was a keen sailor and by the standards of the day, also a keen techie. Hutton and Marjorie married and Hutton quickly became the CEO of General Foods.

The late 20’s were a tough time for the super rich! What with the stock market crash, the approaching Great Depression and Prohibition, it was a challenging time to be a wealthy, ostentatious socialite. Marjorie and Hutton rose to the challenge though by commissioning the construction of the largest 4-masted square rigged barque ever built. They had in built in Kiel, using steel and technology of the Krupps Company in the days before that company moved over to become the largest producer of materiel for the Nazi war machine. Hutton could fulfill his greatest yachting fantasies while Marjorie was determined to fit out the boat in the most extravagant way possible.

The yacht, officially named Hussar V (but nicknamed “Sea Cloud” by Marjorie) was launched in April 1931 at a cost of $3MM. Fitted out with Krupps Diesel engines, the very latest in safety and communications equipment and with a crew of 72, Hutton decided that he could perfectly well run his business from the ship and staying well off shore, or for that matter anywhere in the world, he and Marjorie could be as extravagant as they liked and entertain friends without being bothered by minor inconveniences like Prohibition!

By 1936, the relationship between Marjorie and Hutton had soured. They had political differences (Hutton was an ardent free-market Republican while Marjorie was a friend of Franklin Roosevelt) and Hutton had an affair. They divorced and pretty soon after, Marjorie married Democratic lawyer and lobbyist, Joseph E Davies. Between 1936-1938, Davies was appointed US ambassador to the Soviet Union and he persuaded Marjorie to sign over Sea Cloud to him so that the vessel could be considered as a diplomatic residence. During their time in the USSR, Marjorie and Davies lived and held court on the Sea Cloud moored in Leningrad.

During the war years, Marjorie, who had by this time ditched Davies leased Sea Cloud to the US Navy for $1 per year. Stripped of its masts and fittings and with a few guns added, Sea Cloud saw service as a weather ship patrolling between Greenland and the Azores. Marjorie got the re-rigged Sea Cloud back again in 1949, but the glamour had gone and in 1956 she sold the vessel to her old friend Trujillo. He renamed the ship, “Angelita” and gave it to his playboy son Ramfis. For a while the ship was moored in Long Beach, but it ended up parked at the end of Santa Monica Pier and dubbed “the floating funhouse” by the local tabloids, with a reputation for riotous Hollywood parties.



Following Trujillo’s assassination and Ramfis’ death in a racing car accident, the ship, now renamed the Patria became the property of the government of the Dominican Republic. The ship finally became the property of an east coast socialite, Stephanie Gallagher who named it the “Antarna”. Unfortunately that’s about all she did - ignoring a variety of legal necessities that go with being the owner of an ocean going yacht! Stephanie ended up in a Panamian jail and the Antarna was left to die in the Panamanian port of Colon.

That should have been the end of the story. But interest in tall ships was revived by the parades staged for the US Bicentennial in 1976. German cargo shipping magnates rescued the ship, restored it, added cabins with the intention of using it for charters. Disaster struck again in 2000 when Sea Cloud was badly damaged by fire but for reasons which have never been clear, the Croatian government came to the rescue and paid for a complete restoration.

Which just about brings the story up to the present day. The Sea Cloud, now owned by a German company and used for charters, has been fully restored to its former glory as the largest private, four-masted square rigged barque afloat. Barring any further mishaps, this soap opera with many episodes running for many seasons has reached its happy ending!

Just one foot note. Marjorie and Davies built Mar-a-Largo, the estate in Florida now owned by Donald Trump. Davies, Scottish by origin adorned the estate with his official coat of arms which bore the inscription “Integretas”. Trump literally and without permission, purloined the coat of arms and replaced the inscription with.....”Trump”....

How fitting that the other nickname for Sea Cloud be “The White Legend”....