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^MS Post was the driving force behind Hussar's décor, furnishing, and favored a black hull;

The United States was pulled into the war by the attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941. Shortly thereafter, the Navy started acquiring private yachts to strengthen the fleet and began to outfit them to patrol, search for submarines, and monitor weather.






President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a close friend of diplomat Davies, (Ms post's Husband) at first rejected "military service" for the SEA CLOUD on the grounds that the yacht was too beautiful for such a deployment. But by 1942 the USA could no longer afford this kind of nicety. Symbolically chartered for one dollar, the Coast Guard took over the SEA CLOUD, removed the masts and bowsprit and had the boat painted grey.
Not much was left of the impressive luxury yacht. Outfitted with guns and anti-submarine weapons, she cruised the waters around the Azores and south Greenland under the name IX-99. As a floating weather station, the ship sent current data to Arlington, Virginia every four hours.

USS IX-99 This is an account of the USS Sea Cloud, IX 99, which became an experiment in racial integration aboard U. S. naval vessels from December, 1943 to November, 1944. http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/Carlton_Skinner.asp