Schooner Western Union repairs need more money… again

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

There is a not-so-funny joke about a boat being a hole in the water that you keep pouring money into. Another is what B.O.A.T. stands for: Bring On Another Thousand.

In the case of the Schooner Western Union, the last working wooden sailing schooner built in Key West, those old jokes might be true. Currently in Maryland undergoing extensive repairs, the price tag to return the vessel to the water keeps going up.

After the U.S. Coast Guard forced the schooner into drydock in 2013 because a lack of maintenance led to safety concerns, the owners of the historic vessel, the Schooner Western Union Preservation Society (SWUPS), first raised $750,000 to replace engines, decking, the mast and rigging. That money came from a $250,000 taxpayer grant approved by the Key West City Commission in 2015, which allowed the schooner to qualify for an additional $500,000 grant from the state; enough for the repair, SWUPS said at the time. In return, SWUPS agreed the ship would remain permanently home-ported in its slip in the Key West Bight, where it was taking visitors on day sails.

Schooner Western Union

But shortly after that, unexpected wet rot and termite damage was found in several of the ship’s ribs after the schooner was pulled out of the water, leading to the need for another $150,000. And now, the vessel’s owners say an additional $1.24 million is required to finish the job.

“We have, frankly, been unprepared for what it cost to fix this vessel,” said John Dolan-Heitlinger, SWUPS president. “If I had known what it would cost, we probably wouldn’t have gone forward with it.”

But it’s too late to stop now, Dolan-Heitlinger added, because SWUPS has already spent $1 million on repairs. So, they are turning to the state for help. State Rep. Holly Raschein has proposed an appropriations project from the department of state for $1.243 million. If approved, the grant would be included in the proposed state budget currently under discussion. Dolan-Heitlinger called the bill “a long shot” but is still hopeful.

Even if state legislators approve the grant, however, it may not be enough. Dolan-Heitlinger said SWUPS is working on an updated preservation plan to assure potential donors that no more money will be needed after the fundraising target – to be finalized in the preservation plan – is reached. He is considering selling naming rights to pieces of the schooner such as the mast or rigging as part of that effort.

Key West City Manager Jim Scholl called the increasing cost of restoration “a very unfortunate situation” but said he has heard some offers of fundraising help. If the restoration project ends up failing because enough money cannot be raised, he said, Key West will not be able to get its $250,000 back.

“They [SWUPS] were trying to be too optimistic. I don’t think they understood the true complexity of repairing an old vessel,” Scholl said.

Key West Mayor Teri Johnston has an idea, too. If the schooner cannot be returned to the water, she proposed to bring it back to Key West and turn it into a museum.

“With the amount of money we’ve sunk into it, we could drydock it and use it as a museum and preserve that history,” she said.

Built on the Simonton Street beach in 1939, the Western Union laid 30,000 miles of communication cables between Key West, Cuba and the Caribbean. In 1974 she was converted to a passenger vessel, eventually purchased by Historic Tours of America, which offered day sails to tourists. Unwilling to keep maintaining the increasingly-expensive boat, however, HTA donated her to SWUPS in 2007.

Since then, the schooner has fallen on hard times, with maintenance on the aging wooden boat put off again and again until she was forced into drydock by the Coast Guard in July 2013, one year after she was designated as the flagship of the state of Florida. But all that antiquity is worth trying to save, Dolan-Heitlinger said.

“It is the flagship of the state of Florida and the city of Key West,” he said. “History is important.”

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