USS Williamsburg "Floating White House"

USS Williamsburg was a US Navy gunboat, a former private yacht, that served as a presidential yacht from 1945 to 1953.



USS Williamsburg (PG-56) was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 7 October 1941, with Lt. Commander Frederick S. Hall as her commanding officer. Williamsburg was ordered to the Norfolk Navy Yard to complete fitting-out, arriving on 5 November.

As a gunboat, Williamsburg was armed with two 3-inch gun mounts, six .50 caliber machine guns, two .30 caliber Lewis machine guns, two dct, one "Y" gun, 16 rifles, and 10 pistols. Her crew complement was 81.

After final alterations, the gunboat departed Norfolk on 2 December, touched briefly at Washington, D.C., and eventually arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 6 December, the day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.