Hamburg to Stockton in 50 years: The story of the ‘Aurora’
(FOX40.COM) — How did a first in its class German day cruiser go from cutting the saltwater of the North Sea to taking on the fresh water of the California Delta more than 70 years after it was launched?
The Aurora has called the San Joaquin River home for at least a decade when its current owner Christopher Willson pulled it from the Bay Area into Little Potato Slough.
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On May 22, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office reported that the nearly 300-foot vessel had begun to take on water and was leaking fuel and oil into the river.
As this relatively forgotten icon of maritime cruising history floods with the waters of the San Joaquin River it begs for a reminder of the storied life this ship has lived.
Built by Blohm Voss of Hamburg, Germany in 1955, the Aurora was originally christened the Wappen Von Hamburg and would be West Germany’s first large-scale ship building project following WWII.
With up to 1,600 passengers on board the Wappen Von Hamburg would sail from Hamburg to the island of Heligoland in the North Sea by way of the Elbe River as a day cruise.
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The relatively slow speed of the ship at 17.5 knots meant that the journey took so long that visitors to the island only had about two to three hours on land before the return ride.
The Wappen Von Hamburg would make this daily out-and-back trip until 1960 when it was sold by the German company to the Hellenic Star Maritime Co. Ltd in Greece where it was renamed the Delos, according to the group Greek Ship Miracle.
Under the Grecian flag, the Delos became one of the earliest luxury Aegean cruise ship with air conditioning in every room and a swimming pool.
During its time in Greece the Delos would portray the luxury yacht in the 1963 James Bond film ‘From Russia with Love’ and a decade later the ship would inspire the cruise liner in the TV show ‘The Love Boat.’
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The ship would sail under the Delos name until 1967 when it was sold to Alaska Cruise Lines and renamed the Polar Star.
It’s time in Greece would be the ships longest time of continued ownership while serving as a cruiser.
Now flying under the Canadian flag and under a new name the Polar Star cruised in Alaskan waters until 1970 when it was purchased by West Cruise Line in Panama and renamed Pacific Star.
Again the Aurora would have a short lived run under its new name and was sold in 1972 to Donald L. Ferguson Cruises Ltd. and renamed to Xanadu.
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This would be the ships final voyages as a cruise liner and in 1977 after being laid up the ship was repossessed by a bank and later sold in 1982 to Pan Aleutian Seafood as a crab factory ship.
In less than 30 years after first hitting the open waters around Germany, the Aurora had sailed under at least four national flags and along the shores of two continents.
The remainder of the ships life into the 21st century sees it continue to fall into disrepair as new owners with grand ideas fall short and the ship begins to move along the California cost.
Just as the Aurora was waning on her final days, a Craigslist add intrigued Christopher Willson to purchase the ship in 2008 from a salvager.
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In a 2023 interview with CMS Morning News, Willson said that he had no intention of buying Aurora and only went to get video of its interior.
Willson had Aurora, then named Faithful, brought from the Bay Area to the waters the California Delta where it was moored at its current location along Little Potato Slough, about 15 miles from Stockton.
The Aurora is one of the few remaining pocket cruise ships from the 1950s that has not been subject to the scrap heap and Willson believes it is truly a one-of-a-kind vessel.
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