Prior to World War I, Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, and President Theodore Roosevelt were elected to honorary membership of the Eastern as the result of Henry Howard's (Chairman of the EYC Race Committee) effort to get the Eastern involved in International racing. The Sonder Class yacht was already being raced in Germany, and Howard arranged for an equal number of yachts from Germany and the US to race at Marblehead for the Roosevelt Cup in 1906. The Americans were the winners of this encounter and the following year, 1907, the trophy went to the Germans at Keil.

World War I erupted and a few years later, it would be the duty of the Secretary of the Eastern "to inform the Emperor that his name had been removed from our list of honorary members."