Mar-Sue / USS See W. See SP 740

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Mar-Sue / USS See W. See SP 740 This page follows the history of the motor yacht, h) MAR-SUE, a) SEE W. SEE. Built in Bayshore, NY 1915. Converted back into a MY in 1919 and 1944.

She is a veteran of two World Wars, WWI USN SP-740 and WWII USCG CGR 6001. Today she still survives.

I took very few pictures, however crewman Dave took a lot. These start off on the Chesapeake off Mobjack Bay. Ships can ...
07/01/2026

I took very few pictures, however crewman Dave took a lot. These start off on the Chesapeake off Mobjack Bay. Ships can be seen the back ground anchored off Cape Charles. Then an underway picture somewhere on the Chesapeake. We forth the tide and wind everyday in route. The one picture from the wheelhouse shows the wind picking and it got bumpy. Our first port of call was Fishing Bay Marina in Deltaville taking a little over seven hours. Our second port of call was Spring Cove Marina at Solomons Island, MD taking around seven hours. Went up the wrong side to find this marina, got real tight on my turn around. On the last leg we made it to St Michaels, taking around six hours. Weather was great during the weekend and the portable A/C units worked okay. Saturday Debbie was missing a part to her diabetic pump and had to order a part to be delivered to the museum on Monday. This delayed our departure. The company screwed everything up and finally was shipped to Sommers Cove Marina in Crisfield, MD our next port of call. Just as well, a huge storm rolled through St Michaels in the early evening hours. We left St Michaels on Wednesday June 23 taking around eight hours. We cruised with the P-520 that was on its way to DC for the 250th Celebration. We departed Crisfield for Chesapeake (Home-port) had the tide with us this time and it on the rough side of choppy in Tangier Sound but laid down off the Rappahannock. Off Craney Island the Coast Guard closed the harbor for undocking of the Wind Turbine Installation Vessel CHARYBDIS. This delayed for about 30 minutes. Finally arriving homeport taking around eight hours. We were averaging around 9.4 knots coming home and only in the low eight knots going up.

06/15/2026

The Mar-Sue will be underway starting this morning. She is bound for St. Michaels Maryland to participate in the ANTIQUE & CLASSIC BOAT FESTIVAL AND COASTAL ARTS FAIR at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. It will take her a few days to get there from her home port in Chesapeake, VA. First port of call will be Deltaville, VA. The second will be determined by forecasted weather conditions and the status of the boat. Hope to be in St. Michaels by Wednesday. If you catch any pictures of the Mar-Sue underway we would love to see them. Please share them with us on the page.

The MAR-SUE completed bottom work at Atlantic Yacht Basin (AYB) on 4-10-2026. She was in good hands there and I am compl...
05/12/2026

The MAR-SUE completed bottom work at Atlantic Yacht Basin (AYB) on 4-10-2026. She was in good hands there and I am completely satisfied with the work performed by their team. She is home now where I am preparing her to go to St Michaels, MD to participate in the Annual "Antique & Classic Boat Festival and Arts Show" at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Show is put on by the Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society. A show well worth attending.

Pictures: During my stay at AYB, I saw this black & white picture hanging on the wall in managers office. It really brought back child hood memories from when I was a kid (infant to 9 years old) and the JONBOB II, now the MAR-SUE. This picture was taken 76 years ago, what a historical find for her history addition and the quality of it as I zoomed in on it for this photo. That is Shed One where my dad kept his boat and the dock on the stern of the JONBOB II is where I loved to run as it had a couple of turns and existed out of Shed Two. They had an ancient fire fighting apparatus in the turn in Shed two (Probably in a museum somewhere today?). I loved to run as kid and that dock was my favorite running place.

The color pictures were taken 4-10-2026 of the MAR-SUE prior to the Travel Left coming to pick her up, transporting her to the launch site and back in the water waiting for the Great Bridge Bridge to lift. AYB pictures, 76 years apart, for a wooden boat that is saying something.

On 3-22-2026 a hour and 15 min trip turned into three and half hours. The lock was operating on a two hour schedule and ...
03/26/2026

On 3-22-2026 a hour and 15 min trip turned into three and half hours. The lock was operating on a two hour schedule and we arrived an hour early. The wind was blowing as I came into the lock and the lock tender had me pull all the way forward which is normal, however taking the bow line first was a mistake and the stern was moving away from the lock wall, should have a midships line. Tried to get the midships line to him, but he said "I do not catch lines", so I carried the line forward so he could use his boat hook. He used it and said "I do not pull boats in" and I said no problem we will, then he just dropped the line and walked off. He was telling me to get the boat in, She would not come in because of the line forward and the MAR-SUE is single screw with no cheaters. By this time we were 90 degrees to the lock wall about to get against the gate. I did what I did not want to do by noising her into the lock wall and giving her a hard port rudder which in the process I broke one of my anchor retainers that has been there for 97 years. This guy would make a perfect ICE agent. Anyway the rest of the trip was uneventful and the MAR-SUE making it into the back waters of AYB where she has not been since 1959 went she berthed there from 1944.

The wheel picture is what I am making for the St Michaels trip in June which I will hang from the side of the boat, not finished yet. It will also serve as a table top.

Today at Atlantic Yacht Basin (AYB) I browsing through a photo album and found this picture taken on April 27 1950. I wa...
09/08/2025

Today at Atlantic Yacht Basin (AYB) I browsing through a photo album and found this picture taken on April 27 1950. I was two years old at the time. My dad kept his boat here and where I grew up on the weekends until I was nine years old. In the shed to the left (Shed 1) where it looks like a roof repair is where my dad kept his 27' Chris-Chris along with his friend Billy Maroulis who had a 25' Chris-Craft. That boat in the second row looks like my dads Chris-Craft. To the right of the shed, the second boat to the right is the JONBOB II, the boat I own today known as the MAR-SUE. What a find 75 years later. Photo courtesy of AYB.

When I was old enough, I used to run from shed 1 around the "L" shape connector dock through Shed 2 and out to the fuel dock to see what was coming through the bridge. Where the connector dock started at the corner of Shed 2 was an old large fire fighting pump wagon that was always interesting. I wonder if it even worked. All the boats then were wood and you always would smell the varnish that boat owners were applying to their freshly sanded area. Kind of miss that today, mahogany adds such a touch of class to a boat. Today instead of varnishing, they are waxing.

With the help of a recent friendship with Ted, a military historian who knew where to go for some information I have loo...
08/21/2025

With the help of a recent friendship with Ted, a military historian who knew where to go for some information I have looked for, for many years. Passed down through previous owners, it said that the JONBOB II served in WWII. I have never been able to verify this and organizations I asked never got back to me. Ted knew who to ask and he found her. She served as a Coast Guard Picket Boat CGR-6001 and was in Charleston harbor in 1942. Current info said she served in both the 6th and 7th Districts Charleston, SC up into the North Carolina waters. The government like in WWI conscripted private vessels for patrol and other purposes. She was commissioned in July of 1942 and decommissioned in November of 1943. She was auctioned off in November of 1944 to Julius T. Herbst who moved her to Atlantic Yacht Basin in Norfolk County now Chesapeake, VA from Savannah, GA. Herbst started a yacht brokerage business using her as his home and office. Attached is what she would have looked like during WWII maybe painted Battleship gray, but some were not with big letters painted CGR-6001 painted her hull. Attached picture is the JONBOB II around 1951 under Herbst's ownership.

A MAR-SUE memory from years ago. This is Colonial Yacht Harbor on the Chickahominy River in the 1980's. The MAR-SUE crui...
05/07/2025

A MAR-SUE memory from years ago. This is Colonial Yacht Harbor on the Chickahominy River in the 1980's. The MAR-SUE cruised up with the SMILES there on the right. At the table L to R, SMILES Capt Eddie, Debbie Baxter, Nephew Tom Hudson, Orla Bauer and not sure. Work on the MAR-SUE stopped on November 3rd last when I fell on my right shoulder and tore my rotator cuff. A month to see the doctor, a month of Physical Therapy, another month to get an operation, six weeks in the sling and currently in Physical Therapy hopefully for the last time. I have been in a lot of pain. Anyway hoping to get started again little by little. It is harder when you are old.

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1146 Inland Road
Chesapeake, VA
23322

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