Truman didn't care much for the other presidential retreat, Camp Shangrila, which was renamed Camp David by Truman's successor, Dwight Eisenhower.
Nevertheless, part of Peniston's job was making surprise inspections at the camp.
He was under orders to stay in the president's quarters, and even sleep in his bed. The Penistons never had a complaint about the service.
"Who's going to complain?" asked Peniston's wife, Frances. "Anybody that's going to wait on me hand and foot is OK with me."
But Truman preferred the yacht, Peniston said. He could play poker with his Missouri friends there, the "pals he could talk to and it would not go any farther."
The highlight of Peniston's tenure on the Williamsburg was a visit from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Churchill, an old Navy man himself, showed up in a British lighthouse service uniform, a huge cigar always between his knuckles.
When Churchill left the Williamsburg one night about midnight, Peniston was ordered to escort the portly prime minister down the steep gangway.
"Young man, what makes you think I need your help?" Churchill demanded. "It was an order," Peniston explained.
"Then, young man, you had better do it," Churchill said.
Peniston left the Williamsburg in December 1952, shortly before Truman left office. One of his last assignments was to oversee the construction of a golf hole at Camp David for the incoming Eisenhower.
Peniston met up with Truman again in 1957. He and his wife were on their way to his new assignment at Stanford University. They arranged to call on Truman when they passed through Missouri.
Truman answered the phone himself. "I've been waiting for the stump jumper," he said.
Truman gave the Penistons an hour-long tour of the Truman library, which was not yet open to the public.
Four years later, the couple stopped off in Missouri again, and were again received by Truman for a visit.
Every year after that, on or around Truman's May 8 birthday, Peniston sent his favorite president a letter about his latest exploits in the Navy. Each time, he got a brief response.
"They were short answers, to the point, but you knew it was Truman," Peniston said.
Peniston retired as a captain from the Navy in 1976 and became director of the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University, where his son was a student.
In the meantime, he corresponded with other presidents with whom his career brought him into contact, including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. He continued to write to Truman's widow, Bess, and Mamie Eisenhower.
"She and I became pen pals," he said.
Peniston has all those letters, among scads of mementos from his career.
