Schooner Western Union overhaul to finally begin

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Long live the schooner Western Union.

And that is now a very real possibility, after a near-death experience for the last working wooden sailing schooner built in Key West. The 77-year-old ship is beginning a series of repairs that will make it seaworthy enough to travel to a boat repair yard in Tarpon Springs, Fla., where a major $750,000 overhaul that will restore it to the Key West waters will begin.

The Schooner Western Union Preservation Society (SWUPS) recently requested the city begin to distribute part of the $250,00 grant city commissioners approved last year. The $250,000 taxpayer-funded donation allowed the SWUPS to apply for a $500,000 historic preservation grant from the state, which was recently approved. As a result, SWUPS has asked the city for a beginning grant distribution of $40,000 to get the schooner water-tight and hire a crew to sail her to Tarpon Springs.

“The City of Key West [and] State of Florida Flagship, the schooner Western Union, is ready

to proceed with the… preservation of the historic vessel,” said William Barry, chairman of the Schooner Western Union preservation society. “As part of the city of Key West $250,000 funding, it is agreed by signed covenant that the… schooner Western Union shall remain home ported in the Historic

Key West Bight in her current slip.”

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 dry dock by the Coast Guard in July 2013, one year after she was designated as the flagship of the state of Florida. There she has sat while SWUPS members tried to raise $750,000 to replace engines, decking, the mast and rigging.

“This is a Key West boat,” Barry told city commissioners last year during the grant request deliberation. “We think it’s a good business decision for the city.”

Barry and SWUPS Treasurer John Dolan-Heitlinger said that once the schooner repairs are made, it can continue offering day sails with annual revenue estimated at $1 million. Of that amount, between $150,000 and $200,000 will be set aside each year to pay for maintenance and repairs.

“We expect the Schooner Western Union to be largely self-sufficient once have this major refit,” Dolan-Heitlinger told commissioners, adding, “I don’t think you can come to this community every two or three years for huge amounts of money like we’ve had to do twice. We should generate enough net income in the two years between major haul-outs to cover our operating expenses.”

Immediate repairs needed to get the Western Union seaworthy include repairing the side lifeboat engine, new tools and fire equipment, and hauling the boat out to inspect the hull. The $40,000 will also pay for the three-day trip to Tarpon Springs for a captain and four crew members, provisions and transportation.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]