Aurora Restoration Project

My name is Christopher Willson, I found the Aurora nearly abandoned on the California Delta in 2008. After some investigation I found that she is one of the most historic liners still in existence today. Understanding the significance of her rich history I decided to go all in. Since I have given my best effort to save and preserve this ship for future generations. This is a look back at a few of the projects we've done over the past years. Enjoy.

In this episode I will be working extensively on restoring the stern of the Aurora. I will be taking of layers upon layers of paint in order to do the metal work needed to make the stern shine like new once again. In the second part of the video we will tour the engine room with Gemma from the awesome channel “Ship Happens“. Every task we do aboard the Aurora has its fair share of surprises and the unknown but we always figure out a way to make it happen. She has come a long way in the last few years and she has a long way to go . Join us on our journey to restore one of the last pocket cruise liners and one of the most historic and notable vessels still floating today.

Welcome back to the Aurora Restoration Project. I this episode I will give a brief history on the Aurora as the Wappen von Hamburg. In future videos I will share more of her history as she changed names over the decades. After a brief history I will share with you a short look at one of our ongoing projects. We will be working on the deck rails and teak cap rails. This will give you an idea of what we are up against. Join us on our journey to restore one of the last pocket cruise liners and one of the most historic and notable vessels still floating today.

Welcome to my fourth episode of the Aurora Restoration Project. In this video I will show you a short bit of the history of this fine ship and will also show some of the current projects we are working on including the railing and teak cap rails. I will go further and show you a project I was able to complete not long ago in the lower entry of the Aurora. Thanks for watching.

Welcome to Episode 5 of my weekly video series focusing on the restoration of a classic historic Pocket Cruise Ship. Hold my Beer I’m Buying a Cruise Ship. Aurora the Story is the story about my experience with the Aurora from day 1.

The rail system aboard the Aurora is certainly a huge task that needs to be accomplished not only for safely reasons but to stop water intrusion from the scupper system. Grid tackles this project and nails it. Rails are being fabricated to be as they were when this ship was launched in 1955. Our goal is to create a floating time capsule. When future guests step aboard we want to take them back to the time of great classic cruise ships. There are only a small handful of classic liners left in the world today and even fewer or none unmolested examples. This ship needs saved at all costs.

The Galley aboard the Aurora took the worst beating of any room aboard the Aurora over the years due to the rotted decks. Everything was destroyed. We have cleared everything out and now it's time to give this room the love it deserves and put this galley back into operation. We know. Can we do it? Stick around to find out.

THE START OF AN AMAZING TRANSFORMATION on the fantail of the Aurora. Not an easy job at all but really no part of this project had been easy. Restoring this old Cruise Ship has been an amazing adventure that gets more interesting by the day. Just wait till you see what's next.

Restoring a mini cruise ship is no easy task. It takes all the extra blood, sweat and tears you have and more. Nothing is easy.

Nothing Destroys a ship like LEAKING DECKS. Over the years we have fixed 95% of the deck leaks in the most crucial areas of the ship. Finally this season this problem goes away once and for all as we get ready to replace the last of the damaged deck plate with new. Our friends at FFpower were kind enough to gift us a pretty nice little solar generator that is working miracles for us aboard the Aurora. In this video we will show you what we think so far.

Welcome to the Aurora Restoration Project. I spent a bit more time editing this video. I wanted to show just a small glimpse of the trials that we have already gone through. Although we have so much more to do on this fine ship I think we have a great foothold in securing her future and once again letting the world enjoy one of the most historic liners floating today. I am proud of the work we have accomplished and even more proud to have the world watching on a very large stage.

Welcome to the Aurora Restoration Project. Some of our crew is interested in learning the basics of welding but do they have the skills to learn well enough to be useful? I guess we will find out. After join me on the nastiest deck aboard this ship and soon we will show you how she's looking today after hundreds of hours of cutting, welding and painting.

Welcome back to the Aurora Restoration Project. This episode is all about the rewards of hard work in 103 degrees weather. We take a large section of rusted railing along with the associated deck and completely remove and rebuild the area. Nothing is easy when it comes to restoring a ship.

We seem to always dive into the worst projects. The swimming pool aboard the Aurora is ugly and filled with absolute garbage. Our goal is to spend a few weeks cleaning up the forward deck of the Aurora and give it some new paint and minor repairs as needed. However we are now on a mission to bring this pool back better than ever, It might be a small pool but much better than no pool.

Diving on a ship is no simple task. That of course why we had Dave Foster take the plunge to test out our new gear from www.SmacoDive.com and get some video of the Props and Rudders. The rest of us are continuing work on the forward deck with a limited amount of time to complete the project and move on to the next.

We started working on the forward deck with the idea of just making it look a little better. Well that sure turned out to be a massive can of worms. Most of the difficult tasks are nearly finished but the forward deck has a long way to go before she I will write it off as done. Restoring a retired cruse ship is a huge and monumental undertaking especially when she is a mid century ship.

Due to popular demand from our youtube and facebook subscribers we finally decided to begin the process of restoring the massive air / fog horns aboard the AURORA. The job however isn't turning out to be as easy as we thought.

THE WEATHER IS BEGINNING TO TURN AND THE AURORA WILL NEED A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF WEATHERPROOFING BEFORE THE SEASON HITS. WE ALREADY MADE IT THOUGH THE FIRST BAD RAIN BUT MORE IS COMING ALONG WITH HIGH WINDS. WERE NOT GOING TO LET THIS SLOW US DOWN.

I HAVE BEEN ASKED COUNTLESS TIMES IF THE AURORA IS HAUNTED. BUT THATS NOT WHAT THIS EPISODE IS ABOUT. THIS EPISODE IS ABOUT CONTINUING RESTORATION ON THE FORDECK. HOWEVER SINCE ITS HALLOWEEN I FIND THAT NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO SHARE THIS STORY. MY RESPONSE HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME TO THE QUESTION ( HAVE A SEEN ANY GHOSTS ABOARD THE AURORA. I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING MYSELF TO JUSTIFY SAYING THAT THIS SHIP IS HAUNTED. I HAVE HOWEVER SEEN AND HEARD NUMEROUS STRANGE THINGS THAT I CANNOT EXPAIN BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN ITS A GHOST OR PARANORMAL ACTIVITIES. SOME OF OUR CREW MEMBERS HAVE SEEN THINGS ABOARD THAT HAVE THEM BELIEVING THERE MAY BE SOMETHING MORE ABOARD THIS SHIP. JUDGE FOR YOURSELF. MOST OF THIS VIDEO IS STILL RESTORATION AND FABRICATION.

It's not easy living aboard a 300ft Cruise Ship OFF-GRID with absolutely no shore power. We need power 24/7 for safety reasons. There is no simple solution but we are now one step closer thanks to EcoFlow. Of course we are pushing hard and pushing forward on the Forward Deck. Helping EcoFlow get the word out about their amazing product helps us move forward with this massive project in a big way. Enjoy our Micro Tour of the Aurora...

Not long ago I visited ship historian Peter Knego at his home in Oceanside California. Peter gifted the Aurora a batch of ceiling discs that graced the ceiling of the show lounge aboard the Island Princess ( The Love Boat ) They were in bad shape and there were few options on how to restore these discs. I decided to add a layer of Gold to the discs or at least try my hand at this art form. Stick around for the second half of the video as Peter gives a rare glimpse of Ship Breaking on the beaches of Alang India.

The Knego lounge aboard the Aurora has been an ongoing project for a long time now. We are always looking for ways to make this area more appealing. This year we were invited to CES Las Vegas Convention and got far more than we bargained for when we were offered a NEW electric fireplace from Modern Flames. Of course I can think of several places these should go aboard the Aurora. Behind the bar just seemed to fit best. This is a two part segment.

Sometimes projects get put on delay when we find something interesting aboard the Aurora. While digging in the forward hold we found an interesting small safe. The contents get more interesting when we dig deeper.

When we pulled the Air Horn down from the Mast of the Aurora we could tell that it was in very bad shape. Most of the reason was years of improper maintenance. I sent this horn to our friend Joe for some Aluminum Welding and Fabrication and the Ships Air Horn is well on its way to making a full recovery. We did this entire episode with the Power of the Sun using VanPowers Super Power Pro Portable Power Station and 200w Solar Panel and it worked amazing!!!

What a task ahead of me and my crew. We are set on getting these massive Mercedes Maybach MD655s engines to start and run. What's involved? That's what we are figuring out as we go. Tons of work needed and we will most most certainly require the help of some skilled volunteers to pull off such huge job. This is just one of many videos we will be dedicating to the propulsion system.