Yes, President Harry Truman really did go for a dip in Delaware. The colorful saga.

On a hot August afternoon, a 62-year-old man, wearing his eyeglasses and dressed in green swimming trunks, hustled down the gangplank of a vessel riding at anchor near Cape Henlopen and plunged into the water. He was followed by several other well-conditioned men eager to maintain contact with the bespectacled swimmer, who acted, as the New York Times reported, “like a small boy just out of school.”

Truman takes charge during turmoil of World War II

On April 12, 1945, World War II was drawing to a close, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt suddenly passed away; and Vice-President Harry Truman was elevated to the presidency. Little was known about the festy new president who liked to take impromptu walks and swim in the White House pool.

By August of 1946, Truman had been president for a little over a year, and during that time, he had presided over the end of World War II, the beginning of the Cold War, labor unrest and rising economic difficulties. Seeking to escape the wilting political scene and the Washington weather, Truman decided to take a vacation cruise.

The president’s exact itinerary was not revealed until he had passed various points along the way. It was announced that the general destination was the Block Island-Narragansett Bay area.

Truman, along with several government officials, members of the Secret Service, and nearly two dozen reporters and photographers, boarded the presidential yacht, Williamsburg in Washington, D.C.  Escorted by the destroyer USS Weiss, the Williamsburg sailed down the Potomac River, up the Chesapeake Bay and through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. As the presidential yacht passed through the canal, Truman waved at those on shore.

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When yacht reached Cape Henlopen, President Truman went for a swim

When the Williamsburg reached the Delaware Bay, Daniel D. Dunlop, a Delaware Bay and River pilot, took the helm. Not one to sit still. the ever-curious president stopped by the wheelhouse and chatted with Dunlop. Truman remarked that he had heard reports of the pilots’ skill during World War II.

Around 5 p.m. on  Aug. 17, the Williamsburg dropped anchor near Cape Henlopen. The Wilmington Sunday Star reported, “Mr. Truman donned green swimming trunks. A gangway was lowered and the President took a 15-minute dip along with his personal physician, Col. Wallace Graham, and his naval aide, Capt. James H. Foskett."

According to the Delaware Coast News, “[The president] was well protected even in the water, for immediately [after] he dove in, five secret service men, also arrayed in blue trunks, dove in after him, and encircling him swam all about. We don’t know whether they had knives to combat any inquisitive denizens of the deep, for instance an errant shark, but at any rate, an eyewitness said it would have been difficult for any harm to have befallen Mr. Truman.”

After swimming for about 15 minutes, “like a small boy just out of school,” Truman returned to the Williamsburg; and as soon as the other swimmers were retrieved, the presidential yacht got underway and headed into the Atlantic. As the president continued on his cruise to New England, he continued to relax as he watched a movie aboard the ship.

Later that week, the Delaware Coast News reported of Truman’s impromptu swim off Cape Henlopen, “Little did the residents of Lewes realize as they were enjoying their evening meals on Sunday…that the First Citizen of the USA, President Harry S. Truman, was swimming in the Delaware Breakwater, almost within sight of the town!”

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Principal sources

New York Times, August 18, 1946.

Sunday Star, August 18, 1946.

Delaware Coast News, August 21, 1946.

Log of the President’s Vacation Cruise, August 16-Septemeber 2, 1946, Compiled by Chief Yeoman Charles J. Langello, U.S.N. Edited by Lieut. Commander William M. Rigdon, U.S.N. and Captain James H. Foskett, U.S.N.  p. 7.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Yes, President Harry Truman really did go for a dip in Delaware.