Jan 29
Milwaukee Landmark Finally Being Salvaged Thanks to Anonymous Donor
- Scott Way
- 4 minutes ago
- 4 min read
An ongoing nautical drama being covered by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel appears to be finally heading out to sea. Last month, national media caught wind of the trouble taking place on Milwaukee's Bradford Beach. A yacht, a 40-year-old Chris-Craft Roamer, had become stuck, and then abandoned, on the city's beach in October. Winter set in, the ice formed, and the yacht became the focal point of a story plaguing the boat's owner, a local marina, a boat salvager, and city council. The boat, named Deep Thought, was purchased by a couple from Mississippi in nearby Manitowoc who planned to drive it back to their home state before winter. However, during a stormy night in October the couple missed the entrance to McKinley Marina, where they planned to stay for a couple nights, which forced them to anchor offshore. An apparent loss of power on the boat and wind and waves pushed Deep Thought onto the beach on October 13th, where it's been ever since.
As it sank into the sand, locals began covering the boat in graffiti. At the same time, a local salvager tried to work with the marina and the boat's owners to remove it. When those efforts were paused with the onset of winter, locals decorated Deep Thought for Christmas with wreaths and garland. In the months since it has received several new colour schemes. It's also been systematically torn apart. It became such an eyesore, and a tourist stop, that it got its own virtual marker on Google Maps. A photo gallery shows Deep Thought with a more artistic touch rather than as a dilapidated shipwreck.
Locals have been bemused by its presence -- some cracking jokes about its symbolism with others complaining about its degrading appearance. It seemed no one had the capability, or the funding, to get the boat off the beach. Now the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that an anonymous donor has provided the funding needed to finally get Deep Thought off Bradford Beach.
According to the Sentinel, local salvager Jerry Guyer has been working to free the boat since October. He's put more than $25,000 and 100 working hours into the endeavor, which keeps worsening as the boat fills with water and sand. The boat weighed roughly 15,000 lbs when it was floating, but is now around 25,000 lbs and continues to sink deeper into the soft shoreline.
Now that the winter ice is clearing away, Guyer and his team have returned to pump the water out and develop a plan to break the hull's suction with the bottom.
At the same time, the anonymous donor will cover at least part of the salvaging costs, says Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
Johnson did not reveal much about the donor to the Sentinel, but said a person approached him because they wanted to see "Milwaukee be the best city that it could possibly be."
"It just has become an eyesore," Johnson told the Sentinel. "It's become ... a spot where danger could occur. There has been vandalism on the boat. Part of it has been broken off, glass is broken. Not to mention the environmental challenges."
The U.S. Coast Guard said they wouldn't immediately remove the boat because no lives were in danger and the vessel didn't pose any safety risk. According to the USCG, it is a boat's owners' responsibility to pay a commercial towing and salvage company to remove a stranded vessel. Johnson did not divulge how much the anonymous donor paid, but said the goal for the City of Milwaukee and its taxpayers is to not be impacted by the cost of removing Deep Thought from the beach.
Guyer hopes to have the boat removed within the next couple days, but his success will depend on the ability of Deep Thought to float. He's been to the site five times already to pump the water out. The goal is to empty the boat of water and debris and use a towing winch and a barge to float it to a new location. They have also been slowly breaking the boat down into smaller pieces by removing the cockpit and other sections. "We will put a tension on the boat as we're pumping the water out," Guyer told the Sentinel. "The concept is, you lighten the boat. We also have an air compressor running ... that pumps air under the boat to hopefully break the suction" of the sand.
If Deep Thought won't float on its own, the next step is to attach 'float bags' to the vessel's exterior hull to give it enough buoyancy to stay above the waterline. If that works, Deep Thought will finally be off Bradford Beach and locals will no longer have to stare at their 'SS Minnow' into the summer of 2025. #news
Comments