County Will Sell Deep Thought At Public Auction

Deep Thought aka S.S. Minnow. Photo taken May 6, 2024 by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County Parks plans to sell Deep Thought, the infamous boat abandoned on Milwaukee’s lakefront, either in whole, or in pieces.

“We’re in the process of pursuing a public auction to sell the boat,” said Deputy Parks Director Jim Tarantino at a meeting of the Milwaukee County Board’s committee on Parks and Culture.

It seems likely, at this point, that the boat will be sold in whole. The department has looked into selling pieces of it, but has estimated that it could cost thousands in time and labor to cut it up and may only fetch $10-$15,000.

“That boat is never going to float again without significant investment,” Tarantino said. “It’s more like a piece of art. It’s more like a sculpture at this point.”

For that reason, the department is unsure how to estimate the value of the boat at auction.

In October last year, the boat was run aground between Bradford and McKinley Beaches after it ran out of gas. The owners, who live out of state, had not made an attempt to salvage and claim the boat in the intervening months. The boat sat on the shoreline, covered in graffiti, for months. Local tow company All-City Towing managed to remove it on May 7, but it took three heavy-duty trucks and more than 17 hours of work to dislodge and pull the boat off the beach and over the rocks.

Under state law, a local government cannot take possession of abandoned property until 30 days have passed. So the county could not have salvaged the boat and maintained ownership until November last year. By the time it became clear to county officials the boat would be their responsibility winter had already arrived, Tarantino said.

A local salvager, Jerry Guyer of Jerry’s Silo Marina, made several attempts, on his own dime, to remove the boat before county parks and All-City got involved. Parks was happy to let them try, Tarantino said.

It wasn’t known at the time, but there was more than 100,000 pounds of wet sand in the hull of the boat, Tarantino said, adding, “All the water-side efforts never would have been successful.”

The county’s contract with All-City towing set a cap on expenses at $50,000. Ultimately, given the time and manpower it took to remove the boat, All-City ended up fulfilling the contract at a loss, according to Tarantino.

Parks is currently working with the anonymous donor that initially approached the mayor’s office, said Parks Director Guy Smith. That individual is still interested in donating to the removal costs. The Hoan Foundation has also committed $10,000 to the removal efforts.

Sup. Steve Taylor asked if there was any plan for legal action to recoup the remaining cost of removing the boat. “At the end of the day, I do not want to see the county being on the hook for it,” he said.

The former owners, Richard and Sherry Wells, live in Mississippi and any action would need to be filed in either federal court or state court in Mississippi, said Corporation Counsel Scott Brown.

“The short version of it, at this point, I think, it is what I would call drilling a dry well,” Brown said, adding that the Wells may not be able to pay, so any judgement against them, “may not be worth the paper it’s written on.”

Sup. Sheldon Wasserman suggested the county should have a plan for the next time this happens. He suggested the county should have a policy for contacting a commercial salvager who can remove a boat quickly after it is abandoned, when it will be easier and cheaper.

“We don’t have a procedure for every what-if scenario,” Tarantino said. “But we certainly have learned enough from this experience to have a plan for the next time this happens.”