Tales of the Sea Cloud

The Hussar V was launched in the early 1930s, first built for Marjorie Merriweather Post, owner of General Foods and heir to the Post Cereals fortune. By 1935, when Post married Joseph Davies, US ambassador to the Soviet Union, the ship was renamed Sea Cloud, the name it holds to this day. Soon after the nation entered World War II, the ship was pressed into service as a United States Coast Guard Cutter weather ship under the command of Lt. Carlton Skinner.

Tales of the Sea Cloud tells the story of a luxury yacht that became a remarkable wartime experiment in racial integration. After having witnessed an African American sailor save the crew of another ship, only to be denied a promotion because of the limits of segregation, Skinner proposed to the Secretary of the Navy a plan to sail with a fully integrated crew. Ultimately, fifty black sailors, including two officers, were stationed on the Sea Cloud. Skinner's experiment demonstrated that an integrated crew could work just as, or even more, efficiently as a segregated one and set an important precedent for later civil rights reforms.

Author Ken W. Sayers takes readers on the full journey of the Sea Cloud, from its post-war ownership by Rafael Trujillo - soon-to-be assassinated dictator of the Dominican Republic - to its use as a commercial cruise ship in Panama, its near-disastrous physical deterioration and restoration, and on to the present day as a luxury charter sailing yacht. Readers will be captivated by the rich history of this historic vessel.