A congressional resolution passed in December 1985 stated, “Sequoia was the setting for Presidential meetings, negotiations and decisions of extraordinary significance for and effect on the history of the United States and the course of world events” and “recognized the unique significance of the former Presidential yacht Sequoia which has made her a symbol of American political heritage and the Office of the President”.

[7] At 104 feet in length, Sequoia II's hull was originally constructed of long-leaf yellow pine on white oak frames and her deckhouse of mahogany and teak.

She is capable of comfortably sleeping eight guests in her three double and two single staterooms, has ample crew quarters and can seat 22 for formal dinners.

Local newspapers recount that on October 26, 1925 after arriving with her party in two Rolls-Royce automobiles, Mrs. Cadwalader broke a bottle of champagne against the bow of the Sequoia II commemorating its service to her family.

[6] The Cadwaladers sailed Sequoia II on various high-profile trips to the coasts of Florida during 1925 and 1926, including to West Palm Beach and Miami.

[11][12] Three years after being built for the Cadwaladers, Sequoia II was sold to William Dunning, a Houston-based oil executive who used the vessel for various gambling trips to Cuba and business-related travel along the Mexican coastline.

[15] During 1932, President and Mrs. Hoover spent both Christmas and New Year's Eve aboard the Sequoia II as part of a ten-day fishing trip along the Georgia and Florida coastlines.

[16] Hoover used a photo of the indulgent yacht on his 1932 White House Christmas Card, when many Americans were suffering through the Depression and struggling for basic necessities.

[18] An elevator was installed to enable access for the polio-stricken President, who, like Hoover before him, enjoyed fishing aboard Sequoia and also used the vessel for important meetings and summits.

During a cruise to Mount Vernon they discussed the Great Depression, demilitarization, Adolf Hitler's rise and strategies for averting the threat of a potential new war with Germany.

[21] While serving as the yacht for the Secretary of the Navy, U.S. presidents and members of the Cabinet continued to use the Sequoia, often providing the backdrop for critical moments in American history.

President Harry S. Truman who used the USS Williamsburg as his official yacht, nevertheless called upon Sequoia to host the first atomic arms control talks.

This meeting, under the guise of a cruise to Mount Vernon, initiated a series of highly classified political and military discussions from which emerged the Western European Union, which formed in 1948, followed by NATO a year later.

Government photographers did not accompany him on the yacht, and curiously, immediately after his assassination, an order was given to destroy all personal logs associated with Sequoia's use during the Kennedy Administration.

Frank Gannon, the piano player aboard that day, recounts a poignantly sad story of Mrs. Kennedy requesting him to play “Me and My Shadow” a song about being alone.

On June 19, 1973, a party of U.S. and Soviet diplomats accompanied the President and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev on a working dinner aboard the yacht.

Throughout their cruise, the leaders discussed an agreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, regarding the prevention of nuclear war, which was signed by Nixon and Brezhnev two days later on June 22, 1973, during the Washington Summit.

In a conversation with broadcaster Ray Suarez, Carter said: “People thought I was not being reverent enough to the office I was holding, that I was too much of a peanut farmer, not enough of an aristocrat, or something like that.

I decided to sell the presidential yacht Sequoia, and to minimize the playing of “Ruffles and Flourishes” when I arrived at public meetings.

During an August 1982 luncheon aboard Sequoia, EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch Burford allegedly told eight Reagan Administration officials that she was holding back federal funds to clean up a toxic waste site near Los Angeles to avoid helping the Senate campaign of California's then-Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat.

[citation needed] A congressional resolution written to assist the Trust in bringing Sequoia back into government service, passed in December 1985.

Bush used Sequoia in May 1987 to host a day of meetings with Yang Shangkun who subsequently served as President of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993.

Unable to pay a $2 million repair bill, title to the yacht was transferred to the Virginia shipyard and Sequoia spent six years in storage.

[55] Upon taking office, the Clinton White House worked closely with the Trust during 1993 and 1994 to have Kuwait purchase Sequoia from the Virginia yard where she was being stored and transfer title to the Trust as gift to the American people and a gesture of gratitude to the US for leading a coalition of 34 countries in liberating Kuwait after Saddam Hussein's 1990 Iraqi invasion.

Upon the expiration of its option, the museum's president told The New York Times, "[He] was disappointed because the Sequoia, a national historic landmark, is probably the most desirable vessel in private hands.

[61][62] On August 29, 2013, a Delaware Court entered a Default Judgment against the former owner and confirmed FE Partner's contractual right to purchase Sequoia for $7.8 million.