"Caritas" was designed as a luxury yacht for New York sugar magnate J. Percy Bartram. She was brought to the Pacific by the US Navy during World War II, stationed in a Hawaii. Following the war she eventually ended up in Eureka, California, used as a floating restaurant for 15 years. (She was actually grounded in the riverbed.) In 1965 she was towed up the coast to her current location off highway 101, hauled ashore by 12 large tractors.

As of August 2017, the gift shop is closed and the owner is willing to give the boat to anyone who would haul her away, hopefully to restore her for use.  Her steel hull is basically sound, but her restoration would be a monumental undertaking.