Shipping off to Boston

The tall ship Denis Sullivan is setting sail for Boston in October. Unfortunately, it’s not coming back.

No, we didn’t have a premonition about an ill-fated excursion led by a maniacal captain hellbent on revenge against the whale who bit off his leg on a previous voyage, the vessel has simply been sold to the World Ocean School, a Boston-based nonprofit organization, and will be moving there.

The 137-foot The S/V Denis Sullivan is the world’s only replica of a 19th-century three-masted Great Lakes schooner. It was christened in 200 and has been docked at Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Pier since 2006.

In a story that should be familiar by now, the pandemic did a real number on its bottom line, and the costs of maintaining the ship became greater than the revenues it created. And economic conditions also made it difficult to maintain a crew.

It’s not all bad news, though. The mission of the World Ocean School is education and they have staff and infrastructure to operate the ship year round, so it will now be able to serve a wider audience. And the Denis Sullivan will return for Great Lakes Tall Ships festivals. So that’s cool as long it doesn’t come back saying “wicked” all the time and blabbing about the Red Sox and Patriots. And it sure as hell better be cheering for the Bucks over the Celtics in the Western Conference Finals, no matter where it’s docked.