There are stories that begin with a stroke of luck and end with a lump in the throat. Chris Willson’s started In California in 2008When, sailing through Lacraigslist, he found an unusual advertisement: a German cruise in the 50s, abandoned in a port of the Delta del Río Sacramento, was for sale.
Willson, an American entrepreneur dedicated to technology, came there simply out of curiosity. He met a deteriorated ship, but with a lot of charm. Without giving him many laps, he decided to Buy it.
A historical transatlantic renamed at dawn
But that was not just any ship. It had been built in 1955 in Hamburg by the Blohm & Voss shipyard and originally baptized as Wappen von Hamburg, becoming the first great German transatlantic after World War II. With about 89 meters of length And 85 cabins, in his best times he crossed the Atlantic several times. In addition, it appeared as the headquarters of ‘Specter in from Russia with love’, one of James Bond’s films, and served as inspiration for a series called ‘Vacation in the sea’.
The first night Willsson was on board was surrounded by garbage and chaos. But in his first dawn on the ship he decided to baptize him as Aurora. From that moment he began to give his life to the project.
He moved to live on the ship, brought together a group of volunteers and began an artisanal restoration that would last more than fifteen years. The objective was clear: turn it into a floating museum. He financed the project with own resources, sporadic works as a consultant and, later, thanks to donations and a community that grew around his YouTube channel.
But not everything was so good. The Aurora changed several times of location and ended up in an area known as Herman & Helen’s Marina. There the local authorities began to perceive it as an environmental risk, especially after the nearby sinking of another military ship. The eviction notifications followed, and the last one was the definitive one: to avoid collapse, Willson had to face works whose cost amounted to a millionaire figure.
Surpassed by institutional pressure and without sufficient funds, Willson decided to sell the ship in October 2023. The buyer, whose identity did not transcend, promised to continue the project. But that would be the beginning of the end.
The sinking of the project of your life
Only seven months after the sale, the Aurora began to sink. San Joaquin County authorities discovered a waterway in the helmet and a diesel leak that forced them to intervene urgently. Although the ship was refloated, it no longer sailed again.
In December 2024, after an operational complex that involved several agencies and specialists, it was towed without navigation to Mare Island, north of California. There began its destruction. The cranes torn the steel structure piece by pieceuntil making it disappear. In April 2025, there was nothing left.
From a distance, Willsson contemplated the entire process. “It is probably one of the saddest things I’ve had to witness in this life,” he said in an interview with CNN Travel. “It’s hard to see how fifteen years of work are completely lost.”
Although he no longer had legal link with the ship, the outcome affected him deeply. The entrepreneur says he kept the ship safe for fifteen years, he managed to show his history to the world, but he could never enjoy sailing as he had once dreamed. During all that time, Willson estimates that he invested “more than one million dollars” in his pocket.
The city of Stockton assumed part of the control of operations, although it has not yet revealed the final cost of the scrapping. Everything indicates that the invoice will be millionaire. According to Naval Historian Peter Knego, who documented the process, the costs could be between the 10 and 20 million dollars. The authorities have already announced investigations to determine who allowed the ship to reach that State, and do not rule out undertake legal actions to recover expenses.
Meanwhile, the emotional part of the project is still alive. On the official website of the Aurora Restorration Project, followers and volunteers share memories of their visits to the ship.
Imágenes | Peter Knego/MidShipCinema | Chris Willson/Aurora Restoration Project
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