A cruise ship purchased off Craigslist by an unidentified Utah resident in 2008 began sinking shortly after the buyer spent more than $1 million to renovate the vessel.
Chris Willson, a California-based tech entrepreneur, purchased the Aurora, a 293-foot vessel, from an online retailer 16 years ago. Willson did not disclose the exact amount but said: CNN Travel it “works”[ed] “We got a really good deal with the owner.” The cruise ship, which includes 85 rooms plus a swimming pool and a theater, was docked at San Francisco’s Pier 38 for three years before moving to nearby Stockton in 2012. In the meantime, Willson and his partner Jin Lee have poured a lot of their own money into renovations. They estimate the total to be well over $1 million.
“I had come a long way. I think we had restored and meticulously re-laid 10 areas, solidly,” Willson said. “We were working on the swimming pool and the forward decks and re-coating all the steel,” he explained. “These are pretty big areas. So we were pretty proud of that. So we were doing a pretty good job. Our marine engineers were involved.
“We were making great progress with Aurora,” Willson continued. “We had a successful YouTube channel. Everything was looking great.”
But in October 2023, Willson and Li were forced to sell the boat after a growing backlash from Stockton residents over what they saw as an unsightly blight on a beautiful landscape. In May of this year, Willson and Li’s passion project began “sinking in 13 feet of water and emitting pollution,” the U.S. Coast Guard announced at the time.
“It was determined that the vessel had developed a hole and was taking on water and is now leaking diesel fuel and oil into the Delta Waterway,” the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office said.
In June, the U.S. Coast Guard sent teams to clear “an estimated 21,675 gallons of oily water, 3,193 gallons of hazardous waste and five 25-yard dumpsters” from the Aurora and refloat the ship.
While Stockton “hired contractors to maintain the pumps on the ship and monitor the ship,” the city's public safety officer, Connie Cochran, reported that “figuring out how to dispose of the ship” was extremely complicated because there was “no clear ownership” when the Aurora began to sink. She added that the ship was not only a “public hazard” but also “a hazard to the environment.”
But Willson claimed in a recent Facebook post that the boat's “new owner has consistently reached out to all relevant agencies, passionately proclaiming his ownership status and providing precise legal documentation verifying his ownership.”
Following the cleanup of the Aurora, the Coast Guard said, “extensive inspections indicate no recoverable oil remains on the vessel. No observations of oiled wildlife were made during the response.”