Buying a historic cruise ship he found on Craigslist back in 2008 was undoubtedly a life-altering decision for Chris Willson. The technology entrepreneur from Utah spent around 15 years painstakingly restoring the 293-foot vessel, which contains 85 cabins, a swimming pool and a theatre, and even moved on board with his long-term partner Jin Li. Willson says he poured his life savings into the passion project, and his extraordinary story was picked up by CNN and subsequently many other international publications.
Ship of dreams His ultimate goal was to transform the neglected ship into a museum, but things didn't quite go to plan. In October 2023, Willson made the painful decision to sell the vessel, which began sinking around seven months later. Now its future looks bleak.
"We absolutely loved our time with that ship," Willson tells CNN Travel. "It (selling) was probably the hardest thing I've done in my life. "It haunts me and I lose sleep over it.
I'm not happy about it." So where did it all go wrong? Willson's longstanding connection to the retired "pocket" cruise ship, built in Germany, began when he came across a sale listing on the Craigslist classified advertisements website and decided to investigate. Feeling inspired, Willson decided to purchase his own slice of history.
He won't disclose how much he spent, but says he was able to "work out a really good deal with the owner." After doing some digging, he discovered that the vessel, originally named Wappen von Hamburg.