Bogie’s Boat
Fall 2011, Vol. 43, No. 3 | Pieces of History
Designation of Home Port of Vessel for Humphrey Bogart’s yacht Santana. (National Archives at Riverside, 036-11-003)
Humphrey Bogart paired his passion for acting with his passion for the sea. While he piloted boats in a few of his movies, he was also a serious sailor in his private life. Among the records of the National Archives at Riverside, California, is evidence of the nautical side of his life.
The “Designation of Home Port of Vessel” signed by Bogart confirms the yacht Santana’s home port as Los Angeles. The former owner is fellow Hollywood actor Dick Powell. After a cruise on Santana with Powell, Bogart fell in love with the boat and bought it for $50,000 in 1945.
Bogart owned the 55-foot Santana for 12 years, until his death in 1957, longer than any of the other 11 owners of the yacht. His immediate predecessors as owner are listed together on another document, the General Index or Abstract of Title. This sheet names all the owners of the vessel from the builder to its first owner to Eva Gabor’s husband to actors George Brent, Ray Milland, and Dick Powell. In the heyday of Hollywood, yachting was certainly a sign of the good life. The short tenures of Milland (three months) and Powell (15 months) suggest that their movie studios were behind the purchases for publicity reasons.
The Vessel Documentation Case File for the Santana also contains pages signed by Powell, Milland, and Brent on their own Designation of Home Port applications.
The documents contain an additional historical footnote. Another famous name in American history appears on the applications—William Jennings Bryan, Jr., son of the three-time Democratic Presidential candidate and Wilson’s secretary of state. Bryan is listed as the Collector of Customs for the Port of Los Angeles. He was appointed to that post by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938 and served four terms for a total of 15 years.