The Sachem

The Colorful History of a Boat Rusting in Taylor’s Creek near Petersburg.
 

The Sachem was built in 1902 as the Celt, and was a famous yacht for the next several years.  The navy acquired it during WWI, and assigned it to Thomas Edison, to conduct ocean communication experiments.  It was a boat to host fishing parties in 1932 – the height of the depression – but at the beginning of WWII, the navy acquired it once again.  They rechristened it the Phenakite, and used it to patrol the Florida Keys.  After the war, it was sold to the Circle Line in New York City.  It was eventually docked in New York City, having not been used for a number of years, and was sold cheap to a man named Miller from the Cincinnati suburb of Finneytown, who was looking for an old steam boat to restore.  He made it seaworthy, let it appear in a Madonna video (Papa Don’t Preach), took it to the re-dedication of the Statute of Liberty,  and eventually sailed it to a piece of property he owned in Boone County not far from Petersburg  (thru the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal, down the Mississippi and up the Ohio, at 2 miles per hour).  And that’s where it sits today, rusting.

Most of this information is from an Enquirer article from December 4, 2011, or just Google it; there’s lots of stuff online.