Questions (and answers) about the Milwaukee Boat

If you live in or near Milwaukee, you’ve surely heard about the Milwaukee Boat. You know, that abandoned boat that’s been beached on Milwaukee shores since October. That abandoned boat that’s been the subject of oodles of news stories, our own exhaustive coverage, and our still-available T-shirt. That abandoned boat that’s become a Milwaukee meme. That abandoned boat we hope will never, ever go away.

Since we post about the boat a lot, and since those posts tend to generate the same questions (“Does anyone know who the owners are?”) we’ve assembled this handy Milwaukee Boat FAQ.

Q: Is the Milwaukee Boat still there?

A: Yes. As of this writing, it’s still there.

The Milwaukee Boat—a 33-foot, roughly 40-year-old Chris-Craft Roamer—has been there since October 13, 2024. Here’s the Milwaukee Boat just a few days into its extended stay, on October 18:

And here it is on January 6, 2025:

Q: Where is “there,” exactly?

A: On the sandy (and increasingly icy) shores of Lake Michigan, between Bradford Beach and McKinley Beach.

More precisely, the Milwaukee Boat is just south of MooSa’s Custard Stand, 2272 N. Lincoln Memorial Dr. You can find the Milwaukee Boat on Google Maps, where it’s listed as “The Minnow.” You can also totally see it from the road, peeking over the rocks.

Q: Does the Milwaukee Boat have an actual name?

A.: Yes. The Milwaukee Boat’s actual name is Deep Thought.

But we just call it the Milwaukee Boat. And we’re still not sure if Deep Thought is a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Galaxy, Jack Handy, or nothing in particular. (“The Minnow” is a Gilligan’s Island reference.)

Q: Does anyone know who the owners are?

A: Yes. The Milwaukee Boat belongs to a Mississippi couple, Richard and Sherry Wells.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Wells bought the boat in Manitowoc and planned to take it back to Mississippi via the Mississippi River. But the couple beached the boat on October 13 after they got stuck in a storm and ran out of gas. According to WISN 12, the Wells stayed in Milwaukee for two days and tried to free the boat from the sand; when that failed, they returned to Mississippi.

Q: Has anyone attempted to tow it since?

A: Yes. Crew members from commercial towing and salvage company Jerry’s Salvage have twice tried to tow the Milwaukee Boat—once on November 16, and once on December 30. Both attempts failed.

After the December attempt, a crew member from Jerry’s Salvage told the Journal Sentinel that the boat’s propeller is buried in two to three feet of sand, and that “when you pull it out, it almost beaches back up.” Still, the December attempt did result in the boat being moved a little. (It’s now more parallel to the shore than perpendicular.) Here’s a photo from the November operation:

Q: Why hasn’t the Coast Guard towed the boat?

A: Towing abandoned boats isn’t the Coast Guard’s thing, apparently.

Early on in the Milwaukee Boat saga, officials from the U.S. Coast Guard said that since no lives were in danger, and since the boat posed no environmental or safety issues, they would be leaving it alone. “Abandoned boats are sort of a no-man’s land,” Jerry Guyer of Jerry’s Salvage later told the Journal Sentinel. “We don’t have any competition.”

Q: Do maritime salvage rights apply? Can I tow the Milwaukee Boat? Can I keep it?

A: Who knows!

We’re not lawyers, and we’re definitely not versed in maritime law, so feel free to Do Your Own Research.

Q: Wasn’t there a kayak on the boat at one point? A ladder?

A: Yes, but all that stuff has been removed.

It seems that Jerry’s Salvage has a lot of personal items that were once on the boat, and that they’re holding them for the owners. And yeah, there was occasionally a ladder on the thing.

Q: Who’s getting stuck with the bill for the Milwaukee Boat?

A: Don’t worry: it’s not the City, the County, or you, the taxpayer.

According to the Wells, the Coast Guard is charging them about $400 a day for the stranded boat. The couple also plans to pay back Jerry’s Salvage, which says it has already spent $18,000 in labor and equipment trying to tow the boat. Not that the Wells are thrilled with those numbers: “I don’t have that kind of money. I just don’t,” Sherry Wells told WISN 12. A perhaps dubious GoFundMe set up to help the couple recoup their costs has currently raised $10.

But there’s a wrinkle: According to the Coast Guard, the Wells’ claim that they’re being charged $400 a day is false. “The US Coast Guard is not charging any involved party any fees at this time,” a Coast Guard official told WISN 12. “The statement claiming that the Coast Guard is charging the owners around $400 a day for the boat is false. Neither the salvage company nor the Coast Guard have been able to get in contact with the owners for several weeks, and this article is the first time we have heard anything from the owners since shortly after their boat became stranded last year.”

Q: What’s up with the “ALIENS” tag?

A: Local artists Therd and Emork tagged the Milwaukee Boat in mid-December.

We can tell it was them because the tag’s style and theme are similar to those found on the duo’s mural on the side of that window tinting joint on Humboldt Avenue—a.k.a. the mural that used to feature Mrs. Incredible and her absolute dump truck ass. Also, we can tell because they signed it:

Q: How long is the Milwaukee Boat expected to be there?

A: At least until spring.

Unless someone else gets to it first, Jerry’s Salvage expects the boat to stay put for a few more months. “We just have to wait for milder weather. There’s nothing else we can do,” Guyer told the Journal Sentinel.

Q: Didn’t somebody do a DJ set on the Milwaukee Boat?

A: Yes!

Here it is!