PT-109

An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy

By William Doyle

While he occupied the White House, Kennedy speculated that humanity was drawn to the ocean because it was our primordial home. “I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it’s because we all came from the sea,” he told an audience gathered in Newport, Rhode Island, for the 1962 America’s Cup race. “And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins, the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea—whether it is to sail or to watch it—we are going back from whence we came.”