Photo: S/V Denis Sullivan - Facebook
The Denis Sullivan
The Denis Sullivan
The sale by Discovery World Museum of Wisconsin’s flagship schooner to an organization in Boston, Massachusetts leaves many local supporters “heartbroken” and leaves questions about the deal unanswered.
Planning for the Denis Sullivan, a replica 19th century three-master schooner and the only one of its kind on the water in the world, began in 1991. Construction got underway in 1998 as part of the state’s sesquicentennial celebration and the ship was finally launched in 2000 after innumerable hours of work by an estimated 1000 volunteers. Since then, the Sullivan has been used by Discovery World for its educational and environmental programs. However, a two-year period of inactivity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic left it without a captain or crew and in need of significant maintenance.
In April, Discovery World officials said the museum would not be able to operate the ship in 2022 and that it was re-evaluating if it could financially support the annual cost of about $250,000 necessary to keep the Sullivan in operating condition going forward.
Sudden Announcement
Photo credit: Sky Schultz
David HB Drake
David HB Drake
Then, last month, the museum suddenly announced it was selling the sailing vessel to World Ocean School, a 20-year-old non-profit educational sailing organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. The sale came as a disappointing surprise to many, including members of the Friends of the Denis Sullivan, a group dedicated to supporting the operation of the ship and its programs. A member of the group’s steering committee, Milwaukee’s David Drake, told Shepherd Express that Discovery World sold the Sullivan without giving local groups enough of an opportunity to find a way to keep it in Wisconsin.
“The biggest difference of opinion some of us have with Discovery World is that they didn’t give us a chance to say, hey, wait a minute, if you can’t handle it anymore, we understand. But at least give us a shot at taking over and rethinking the process,” Drake said.
Drake, who was part of the original group of supporters in 1991 and has since served as a volunteer crew member, educator, historian and ship’s musician aboard the vessel, said he and other group members had been exploring ways to form or find an environmental or maritime organization which might have been able to keep the boat at Discovery World by taking over responsibility for its funding and maintenance while leaving the museum in charge of its educational programming. He said the group offered to create a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation but Discovery World officials discouraged the idea, telling it that such a nonprofit would have to compete with the museum for funding sources.
|
|
“That’s part of our uncomfortableness,” Drake said. “I don’t know that we would have been able to raise the money but we sure as hell could have tried. We weren’t even given the chance.”
Time to Explore
Drake said World Ocean School originally approached Discovery World with an offer to lease the Sullivan so it could continue its own educational programming while its sailing vessel, the 96-year-old Roseway, would be in dry dock for repairs over the next two years. Drake said Friends of the Denis Sullivan was supportive of the plan because it would have kept the schooner in operating condition while giving local groups time to explore ways to keep it in Wisconsin.
“I don’t want to say Discovery World was bargaining in bad faith but I think they saw an opportunity and grabbed it,” he said. “But by selling it, they left lots of us without a seat at the table.”
Drake also said he finds it “odd” that museum officials will not reveal the ship’s sale price. The Sullivan cost $4.2 million to build, including some funding from state taxpayers, but Discovery World said its current market value was about one million dollars.
“We don’t know who benefits from that money,” he said. “What is it going to? Is it going to pay off the museum’s debts? We’d like to know if the money is being used to support the original mission.”
A spokesman for Discovery World declined to be interviewed for this story.
Drake said his group had been looking into the possibility that organizations in several of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan ports, including Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay, Kenosha, Port Washington, Sheboygan and Manitowoc, might have agreed to host the ship on a time share basis.
“I floated that balloon with Discovery World but it went nowhere,” he said.
Photo: S/V Denis Sullivan - Facebook
The Denis Sullivan
The Denis Sullivan
Still Available to Wisconsin
In a press release, Discovery World said the new owners will make sailing opportunities available to Wisconsin youth and that the World Ocean School will likely make occasional return visits with the Sullivan to its home port of Milwaukee. Drake said he and other group members are appreciative of that and “have no problem there.”
But Drake maintains that museum officials seemed indifferent to efforts to keep the state’s official flagship under the control of the people of Wisconsin. “I’m not saying they didn’t have the legal right to sell it but morally, ethically and aesthetically? That’s another thing entirely,” he said.
The Denis Sullivan sets sail for Boston on Saturday, Oct. 8. The Friends are organizing a flotilla to give the schooner a send-off, leaving Jones Island at 8 a.m. “Please bring your boat, kayak, or just watch from shore,” Drake says. There will also be an onshore gathering of Friends of the Sullivan and interested folks at 8 a.m. at the Erie Street Plaza, 665 E. Erie St. to wave goodbye.
