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Allies fed troves of disinformation to the Germans. The deception plan had a measure of success, and the Axis shifted reinforcements to Greece, Sardinia, and Corsica instead of Sicily, where the Allies eventually landed on July 9.

    G RAND STRATEGY ASIDE , Taylor’s first priority involved setting up MU’s base camp to train operatives and house vessels. He handled everything from obtaining vessels and office supplies to developing the training curriculum. To his dismay, Taylor discovered that OSS headquarters had already selected a site in Ras el Kenayis, Egypt, which was located on the Mediterranean coast about 140 miles from Alexandria. He found the location undesirable because itlacked “protection from the elements, and the outlying reefs made it a nightmare to navigate in and out of the base camp.” Taylor spent the next several weeks traveling throughout the Middle East trying to find a suitable spot for the base camp, but his efforts to set up operations were in vain. He identified a potential site in Palestine and yet another in Mersa Matruh, Egypt, a city ten miles west of the Ras el Kenayis. However, Colonel Guenther did not approve either location, and the Maritime Unit ultimately abandoned plans for a training facility in Egypt. Lieutenant Taylor’s lowly rank undoubtedly played a role in his inability to win the approvals he needed from colonels and majors. He also faced extreme challenges in building consensus and recognition of the Maritime Unit from the other branches within the OSS, which were reluctant to recognize the nascent unit that had recently broken away from the Special Operations Branch. For months, Taylor and the small team of extraordinary men focused on the mission and, as a result of their sheer determination, overcame the barriers of rank and branch.
    After his failure to establish the MU training base, Taylor thrust himself into an area he knew well—the sea. To conduct maritime covert operations and missions in the Aegean, Taylor urged Commander Woolley to send him high-speed PT boats. He cabled headquarters that “it was absolutely urgent that a fast surface craft approximately 85-ft. in length, with speed in excess of 15 knots, be assigned to his area in the Middle East.” Taylor pestered anyone who would listen, but the acute shortage of Allied surface craft in the Aegean forced the OSS to resort to extreme alternatives.
    The first craft Taylor managed to employ looked more like a pirate ship than a covert craft for inserting agents. Known as the Samothrace, the 90-foot, 150-ton high-masted luxury yacht was most definitely not the fast boat Taylor had requested. The flashy craft stuck out like a sore thumb among the other boats in the Aegean. The ostentatious schooner was owned by cotton tycoon George McFadden. Fittingly code-named “Daffy,” McFadden was an old Princeton classmate of one of the archaeologists at the Greek Desk.Tired of waiting for vessels from Washington, the OSS leased the schooner from McFadden, who continued to entertain guests on the yacht—even while it was on convert missions! One OSS staffer acidly wrote, “Daffy intolerable. . . . Tell him we are at war. He hasn’t heard.”
    But using a luxury yacht for covert operations wasn’t just foolhardy; the cost was exorbitant. Because the Samothrace was deployed in a war zone, the insurance premium topped a whopping $1,500 per month, more than $20,000 in today’s dollars. The OSS had to invest even more money before Taylor could undertake the mission—the boat required a total engine overhaul that “was completed two days later after many exasperating delays.”
    It’s likely Hayden also piloted the Samothrace. While waiting for his mission orders, the movie star once “borrowed a Jeep from the motor pool and cruised alone down to Alexandria, where I promoted a fast cruising sloop from the Royal Egyptian Yacht Club and had myself some