TRUMPY: HISTORY OF A LEGEND

The Trumpy shipbuilding legacy began five generations ago in the coastal city of Bergen, Norway, where Casper Trumpy owned a shipyard nestled at the foot of The Seven Mountains. Casper’s son John grew up working in the family shipyard, and returned to do so again after earning a naval architecture degree in Berlin, Germany. When Casper Trumpy passed away, John sold the business to the Bergen Gas Company, and with little left in Bergen, moved to America. After working at the New York Shipyard in Philadelphia, and the commercial John H. Mathis Shipyard in Camden, New Jersey, he formed a partnership with John H. Mathis, leasing space within the yard solely dedicated to the design and build of private yachts.

John Trumpy Sr.’s intuitive designs answered the demands of an increasingly wealthy class of Americans, who by the turn of the century had begun to accrue wealth on a par with European royalty. Trumpy perceived that unlike the Europeans, who tended to prefer long voyages on cumbersome yachts with elaborate interiors, the American market favoured fast commuter yachts. The new yachtsman wanted to go from his estate on Long Island Sound to his Manhattan office on Wall Street as crew members served up breakfast. In winter the Captain might navigate the yacht to the shallow Florida canal system or abundant fishing grounds of The Keys. A summer cruise in style around the Great Lakes also provided a fashionable pastime. Trumpy’s narrow beam and shallow draft design favored speed with no great sacrifice to posh interiors, and met the requirements of America’s aristocracy perfectly. By the 1920s his graceful architectural style was ubiquitous, defined by a plumb bow emblazoned with signature “T” scrollwork, vertical Pullman windows and a counter stern with canvas awnings. Trumpy was enjoying a full order book year after year.

During this period Trumpy produced many of the fastest, largest and most famous American yachts, solidifying the company’s reputation among the elite. The 77-ft. Lady Baltimore, constructed in 1915 for the Hall-Seely Motor Company, was purchased in 1920 by E.F. Hutton, who refitted the yacht with a pair of eight-cylinder Sterling engines to achieve a remarkable 21 knots.

The 104-ft, Sequoia II, built in 1925 for Richard Cadwalader, Jr., became the US Presidential Yacht in 1933, entertaining Presidents from Roosevelt to Carter. Richard Nixon hosted Leonid Brezhnev on Sequoia, and Queen Elizabeth went aboard her in 1968 to visit LBJ. As part of an austerity campaign when he assumed the presidency, Jimmy Carter ordered the Sequoia be sold. It went for less than $300,000 and remained in a state of disrepair until The Presidential Yacht Trust purchased and restored her. She is now designated as a National Historic Landmark. Recently, Trumpy Yachts has entered into a cross-marketing agreement with the current Sequoia ownership group.

Among these storied yachts the Trumpy Shipyard built only two steel hulls, the 148-ft. Alamo and 110-ft. Arminia. The Alamo had several owners before being acquired by the US Navy, renamed Alabaster, and designated PYc 21. A similar fate befell Arminia, named after the wife of owner William Atterbury. He enjoyed Arminia from her launch in 1930 until 1934, when the yacht was sold and renamed Stella Polaris. In 1940 Stella Polaris became Patrol Yacht coastal #4 (PYc 4) Agate.

Although there are many famous Trumpys and aficionados with stories to tell, the most candid come from Johan Trumpy, grandson of John Trumpy Sr. An affable man with a remarkable memory of family history and yacht construction, he describes the wartime company transition: “When WWII intensified, John Mathis needed to take over the whole John H. Mathis Company facility to build boats for the government, so the Mathis Yacht building Company relocated to Gloucester, New Jersey, outside of Camden, and they changed the name to John Trumpy & Sons. By doing so it ensured that there was no confusion about who was where.”

It would seem that by 1940 John Trumpy Sr. was legally the sole owner of the Mathis Yacht Company, as John Mathis died in 1939 and a second partner, William Robinson, died in 1940. But Johan Trumpy relies on company records. According to the stockholder accounts, in about 1920 John Mathis suddenly disappears from the books and it seems that John Trumpy Sr. had sole control of the company at this earlier date. Yet the Mathis name remained ubiquitous. Even into the late 1950s, Johan Trumpy recalls, “Our adverts and letterhead said formally Mathis Yacht Company. Trumpy and Mathis were the same company, but we called them Trumpy yachts, and they called them Mathis yachts.”

Trumpy was also finding time to build government contract boats prior to the war, having designed several models, including a speedy Coast Guard boat used during Prohibition. During the war, government contracts increased and the workforce expanded rapidly from about 60 workers to more than 500. By the end of the war, Trumpy’s entire production was given over to building military craft. But when the war ended, Trumpy turned his attention back to the design and production of private yachts. The first build was Aurora, a 55-ft. pilot model built on spec by John Trumpy & Sons to get the company back into the civilian market. Firmly back in business, the yard was turning out about six new yachts a year, each bearing the distinctive Trumpy scroll on the bow.

By 1947 industrial waste that had been carelessly dumped into the Delaware River had so polluted the waters that a yacht could not navigate along its course without potential damage, forcing Trumpy to look for another yard. The Annapolis Yacht Yard in Maryland had gone broke as a result of rapid inflation, exacerbated by the death of one of its owners, and was forced to shut down. John Trumpy bought the property and moved his entire operation there. It was here that John Trumpy & Sons would build wooden yachts for the next 27 years, all launched down the slipway into the Severn River.
During the post-war years, Trumpy yachts between 55 and 80 feet became exceedingly popular with many well-known, well-to-do Americans. For example, Henry Sears commissioned a 48-ft. cruiser called Megaera, and Gilbert Verney, owner of the Monadnock Paper Mills in New Hampshire, had the 58-ft. Katuna built in 1970. One of the last boats built at the Annapolis yard was Sinbad, for Fred Gordon, Jr.

Trumpy’s sterling reputation had much to do with the high quality of materials, meticulous craftsmanship and the best construction methods of the time. The frames were of steam-bent oak, and the hulls were double-planked mahogany fastened with bronze screws.Vinyl, the new wonder material of the 1940s and ‘50s, was used to upholster seating and cushions. Stainless steel was replaced by Formica, a cutting-edge post-war material used extensively to provide maintenance-free surfaces. The yachts were also equipped with the latest in electronic and power systems – items considered normal now, but years ahead of the competition then.