Cruise Ship Purchased From Craigslist Sinks After $1M Renovation

A cruise ship purchased by an unidentified Utah man on Craigslist in 2008 began to sink shortly after the buyer spent more than $1 million renovating the vessel.

Chris Willson, a California-based tech entrepreneur, purchased the Aurora, a 293-foot ship, 16 years ago from an online seller. Willson didn’t disclose the exact amount, but told CNN Travel that he "work[ed] out a really good deal with the owner." The cruise ship, which contains 85 rooms in addition to a swimming pool and a theater, spent three years docked at San Francisco’s Pier 38 before it was moved to nearby Stockton in 2012. All the while, Willson and his partner, Jin Lee, poured huge amounts of their own money into renovations. They estimate it was well over $1 million in total.

"I’d gotten quite a ways. I think we had 10 areas solidly restored and refurnished meticulously," Willson said. “We were working on the swimming pool and the forward decks, and replating all of the steel,” he explained. "These were kind of major areas. So we were pretty proud of that. So we were doing a pretty good job. We had marine engineers involved.

“We were making terrific progress with the 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 mounting backlash from Stockton residents over what they deemed to be an ugly eyesore polluting an otherwise pleasant view. In May of this year, Willson and Li’s passion project began to "sink in 13 feet of water and discharge pollution," the U.S. Coast Guard announced at the time.

"It has been determined the ship has suffered a hole and is taking on water and is currently leaking diesel fuel and oil into the Delta Waterway," the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office explained.

In June, the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched crews to remove "an estimated 21,675 gallons of oily water, 3,193 gallons of hazardous waste, and five 25-yard bins of debris,” from the Aurora and try to refloat the vessel.

While Stockton "hired contractors to maintain pumps within the vessel to address potential water ingress and monitor the vessel," the city’s public safety officer, Connie Cochran, reported that “figuring out how to dispose of the vessel” is exceedingly complicated because there was “no clear ownership” over the Aurora when it began to sink. She added that the ship is not only a “public hazard” but a “danger to the environment.”

However, in a recent Facebook post, Willson claimed that the boat’s "new owner has consistently reached out to every pertinent agency, fervently proclaiming his ownership status, and has provided unequivocal legal documentation confirming his ownership."

Following their clean-up of the Aurora, the Coast Guard asserted that "extensive surveys suggest that no recoverable oil remains onboard. There were no observations of oiled wildlife throughout the response.”