Sea Cloud was built in Kiel, Germany, as a barque for Marjorie Merriweather Post and her second husband Edward F. Hutton of Wall Street's E. F. Hutton & Co.[2][3] The yacht interiors and features were personally designed by Post, who took a course in marine engineering, and had full size interior mocks-ups done in a New York warehouse.

[2] The Navy sent Sea Cloud from Georgetown, South Carolina, to the United States Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland, to be refitted as a "weather observation station vessel", and had the four masts removed and hull painted battleship gray.

Relieving USCGC Conifer in February 1944, Sea Cloud patrolled a 100-square-mile (260 km2) area near the New England coast, generating weather reports for the First Naval District.

On February 27, 1944, Sea Cloud traveled to be refurbished at Atlantic Yard in East Boston, afterwards taking over a new one-hundred square mile area at Weather Station Number One.

The target was identified as a submarine, but after Sea Cloud carried out standard anti-submarine drills with no evidence of damage being inflicted, she returned to port.

While patrolling the area on June 11, 1944, the crew spotted a Navy Grumman TBF Avenger, exchanging recognition signals.

Sea Cloud was decommissioned on November 4, 1944, at the Bethlehem Steel Atlantic Yard and returned to Davies, along with $175,000 for conversion to pre-war appearance.

After witnessing a black man save the crew of Northland yet still be denied promotion because of the rule, Skinner proposed an experiment.

Post retained ownership of Sea Cloud in the aftermath of her divorce from Mr. Davies, since she had originally brought the ship into the marriage.

[6] In the beginning Sea Cloud featured royal-sails over single topgallant- and double top-sails on the fore and mizzen masts.

Rafael Trujillo, ruler of the Dominican Republic, purchased Sea Cloud in 1955, trading a secondhand Vickers Viscount airliner in return.

Blue brought the vessel to the United States, but port authorities docked the boat after a dispute in Colón, Panama.

[6] After the ship stayed in port for eight years, Hartmut Paschburg and a group of Hamburg associates purchased her, once again naming her Sea Cloud.

Sea Cloud spent eight months undergoing repairs in the now-named Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft shipyard, the very yard she was built in.