At the National Links

Once Upon a Time There Were 100 Foot Yachts at a Golf Club

By T.J. Clemente

It was a time of magnificence for the very few. The National Golf Club of Southampton, up until 1941, had a yacht club for a very select group. While a great deal of the nation was healing from the Depression and getting back on their feet via Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” the very rich were playing golf and summering in their 60-70 room cottages out on the south end of Long Island. A young Clark Gable would be playing a round, perhaps looking out at some of the amazing yachts moored at the docks of the National Golf Club Yacht Marina.

Yes, there was a yacht club at the National. Located between Sebonac Road and Ram Island, off Bullhead Bay to one side and the Sebonac Creek channel out to Peconic Bay on the other side, the Yacht Club was the summer home to some very amazing vessels. Col. H.H. Rogers, a President of the Standard Oil Company (of the Rockefellers) kept various toys there. His 70 ft. “Charming Polly,” was a unique powerboat, with the three engines identical to those that powered the German airship Hindenburg. “Charming Polly” would sometimes cruise towards Wall Street at 45 knots. At the end of his life, Col. H.H. Rogers befriended a very old Mark Twain, whom he transported out to the Hamptons on this yacht, parking it at his slip at the the National. When Col. Rogers passed away, his new 150 ft powerboat, “Sea Pine,” was docked at the National.

Another vessel docked at the National was the 70-foot “Doraben,” which belonged to club member H. Benjamin. Dora, of course, was his wife’s name. Gordon Hamersley had his thunderous 93 ft sailboat, “Countess,” moored close to the docks with the tender bringing him to shore to play a round.

A fun event was the arrival of Capt. Harold Vanderbilt from Newport to play some golf at the National. He would arrive aboard his 150 ft powerboat, “Vara.” Harold, of course, won the last America’s Cup race that used the huge J boats skippering Ranger.

Another ship unable to dock and so moored in the harbor was “the yacht” of the Hamptons of that era. Of course, that was none other than the 350 ft. “Hussar,” later renamed “Sea Cloud,” which belonged to Marjorie Merriweather Post. It was E.F. Hutton, her second husband, who commissioned the Hussar. For trivia, her total name was Marjorie Merriweather Post Close Hutton Davies May, when she passed away in 1971. Her actress daughter Dina Merrill, whose real name is Nedenia Hutton, still to this day, sails on the Sea Cloud down in the Caribbean one week a year. Presently, it is a luxury cruise ship. It is believed to have had a crew of 60 in its heyday.

On December 7, 1941, the Pearl Harbor attack decimated the U.S. Navy and almost all of the powerboats mentioned were seized by the American government for use by the United States Navy. Because of the war, gasoline was rationed and thus the yacht club at the National was closed. It never reopened.

Many believed that the Hurricane of ‘38 caused tremendous damage and was responsible for the demise of the yacht club, but actually only one long dock was destroyed. Howard Hughes himself, at the time a resident of East Hampton’s Lily Pond Lane, was caught on a yacht right outside Three Mile Harbor during the height of that storm.

The true reason for the demise of the yacht club at the National Golf Club was the war. So it was the summer of 1941 that last saw the likes of Harold Vanderbilt hopping off his 150 ft power yacht to play a quick 18 holes at the National before motoring back to Newport where perhaps as many as 300 guests awaited him. Yes, it was a time perhaps like no other in the Hamptons, the time before the winds of war blew away a strata of opulence that even the billionaires of today just don’t seem to have.