Launched in Hamburg in 1955, today’s Aurora travels the world. Decades later, it ends up in California and meets its dubious fate.
Which ship is it about? At the center of the events is an icon of post-war Germany, the Wappen vom Hamburg
. In 1955, the 90-meter-long passenger ship was launched at Blohm and Voss in Hamburg. Several ownership changes, name changes, and tens of thousands of nautical miles later, it languishes in summer 2024 as a makeshift wreck in a river delta near the west coast of the USA, as reported by CNN.
Its long-time owner, investor Chris Wilson, had big plans for the ship, which he renamed Aurora, until recently. He had spent more than a decade trying to restore her alongside volunteers – but in vain. By autumn 2024, only the question of who will pay for the disposal remains.
With New Hope to California
What did Chris Wilson want with the Aurora? When he discovered it in an online announcement by a businessman in 2008, the ship-enthusiast investor decided to save the ship. He bought it and had the restoration-needy lady towed to California, where work continued for over 16 years. He documented this work on his own YouTube channel. Wilson invested more than one million US dollars in the restoration.
But beyond the progress made onboard, which aimed to convert the former Wappen von Hamburg into a conference center or something similar, decay continued on the hull. In 2024, US authorities finally demanded the removal of the ship, as they feared its sinking and thus water pollution – rightly so, as it turned out. In May 2024, the Aurora sank due to its hull, which divers later described as “Swiss cheese”.
By this time, Chris Wilson had already handed over the ship to an unknown person. A contracted company hastily welded the holes a few weeks later and pumped the water out. Now it is floating again. But the question arises again: where to put the Aurora? It will likely end up being scrapped this time, but it’s unclear who will pay for it. In 2008, it faced the fate of ending up as an artificial reef.
Meanwhile, Chris Wilson is looking for a new restoration project; this time it should according to an article by CNN be something on solid ground – maybe a church or an old manor house.
How did the service time of the Aurora go? As Wappen vom Hamburg, it transported day visitors between Germany’s only open-sea island, Helgoland, and Hamburg for some time. Afterwards, it sailed under different names like Delos, Polar Star, or Xanadu across the world’s oceans from south to north. As Delos, it even appeared in the James Bond film “From Russia with Love,” which premiered in theaters in 1963 (via Fan-Wiki).
It is probably just a modern myth that stubbornly holds on to pure fascination with luxury, but it is certainly exciting: the supposedly most expensive yacht in the world. It stands out through far more than just its price from its already elite class: The most expensive yacht in the world does not belong to Bezos or Zuckerberg: It costs 4.8 billion and is made of gold and dinosaur bones
