The long-decommissioned British warship HMS Mistletoe, which guarded the sea lanes against the German Navy during the First World War was for many years a floating casino off Newport Beach, California.
The century-old minesweeper was designed to be a warship in disguise that could cast aside its outer façade and offer battle with big guns when U-boats and other predators tried to swoop in on it, thinking it a defenseless merchant ship. It sank two such German subs during its career.
Later it was card players and slot machine fans that did the swooping in. In the years after the war it served as a passenger ship, and cargo carrier and a casino boat off Ensenada, Mexico in the 1930s.
In 1937 it was reborn as the Star of Hollywood, once again a floating casino, operating off Newport Beach. It was transformed from a military ship into the luxurious pleasure boat.
According to Jim Fournier’s “Tales of Balboa, Rogues, Rascals, Gamblers and Gambols” illegal gambling operations were “taxed” by city of Newport Beach and helped keep it afloat during the Depression.
Over the years the ship had different anchors up and down the California coast. During that period, it acquired yet another name, Star of Scotland. Under increasing pressure from law enforcement that considered gambling allied with the mob, the ship was no longer used as a casino and eventually became a fishing and party boat.
However, during a storm in 1942 it sank off the Santa Monica Pier. Today its hulk is under 70 feet of ocean.
The ship itself appeared in several films of the 1930s such as Gambling Ship (1933) with Cary Grant and Gambling Ship: Dante’s Inferno also 1933 with Spencer Tracy. It was also written about by mystery writers Erle Stanley Gardner and Raymond Chandler.
