'Western Union' gets love from locals: It's back in water; money being raised for new deck

Aug 29, 2008 (Florida Keys Keynoter - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- WU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Aug. 29--She's the oldest sailing vessel built in Florida and the grand flagship of Key West's Conch Republic. And Key West, it now appears, is going to be able to hold onto her for the long haul.

The Tourist Development Council last month voted to recommend awarding $405,000 for restoration of the Western Union, the 130-foot schooner docked at the foot of William Street at the historic waterfront. It was a quick meeting, and the decision was unanimous. "I think what was exciting to us was this was an authentic piece of Key West history," says Julie Fondriest, chairwoman of the TDC's district advisory committee for Key West.

The Western Union was built in 1939 and pushed into the water in April of that year at the bottom of Simonton Street, near the Pier House. The chief builder was Heber Elroy Arch, a native of the Cayman Islands. He had help from six men from Grand Cayman Island and four laborers from Key West.

The Western Union was built as a working boat, and that's what she's been for the majority of her life. She was owned by the Thompson Fish Co. of Key West in the early years and leased to the Western Union Telegraph Company, which gave her the name. From 1939 until 1974, the Western Union was used to lay and repair telegraph cables in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. There was enough space in her main cargo hold for 20 miles of cable and 80 tons of cargo.

Key West lost the Western Union at least twice -- once in the late 1970s when she was taken up to the Chesapeake Bay to work as a tour boat. And again in 1984 when she was bought by an Arizona-based nonprofit group that used her for the rehabilitation of troubled kids. Most recently, she was owned by Historic Tours of America. But the costs of maintaining the ship had become too great and in August of 2006, she stopped taking tours and was put up for sale.

Theo Glorie, the owner of the Caroline Street coffee shop and Internet cafe Coffee Plantation, saw her sitting there month after month at the bottom of William Street with a for sale sign affixed to her hull. "It really didn't look that good for a ship," he says. "Everybody was a little afraid of starting this project."

Glorie says he didn't know a lot about boats: His only experience was chartering a schooner with his wife out of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands a few years ago. But he says he saw the potential for the Western Union, for Key West keeping the ship on the island and using it for educational purposes.

The Western Union was for sale for about a year when Glorie started working with others to form a nonprofit to acquire it. Guy de Boer was one of those involved almost from the beginning. He'd approached developer Ed Swift, the principal owner of Historic Tours of America, and began to talk with him about buying the boat. De Boer says that at one point, Swift realized they had no money. But to de Boer's amazement, that didn't put a stop to negotiations. "Ed kept going, 'OK, OK,'" says de Boer. "He had offers from other places to buy the ship, but in the end he decided to donate this." Historic Tours of America agreed to donate the Western Union to a non-profit on the condition that it be preserved and kept in Key West.

The newly formed Schooner Western Union Preservation Society acquired the ship last year, and in December, sent her to a shipyard in Miami to make her once again seaworthy. The insurance company wasn't crazy about having her make the voyage, offering Glorie and the others a small window of time to sail her there, when the waves were expected to be no more than 2-3 feet. The weather, however, changed, and the ship pitched and rolled and it appeared, for a time, that she might not reach her destination. In Miami, she got a lot of new lines, and some new wood.

The Coast Guard looked the ship over on her return to Key West and re-issued a certificate on July 3, making her eligible to once again take tours.

A sunset sail was hastily organized for July 4.

The Western Union now takes passengers on sunset tours seven nights a week, for just $39 per person. It's a unique opportunity to sail on a historic vessel for not a lot of money. And it won't be around for a lot longer. The Western Union still needs a lot of work, and the members of the society are working now on reviewing plans for a major restoration that will involve replacing the ship's deck, which is leaking and beyond repair. The deck replacement, to cost more than $800,000, may start as soon as December. The plan is to have the work done in Key West, using local laborers. The members of the Preservation Society are now negotiating with the city of Key West to pull the Western Union out of the water at the Truman Annex.

Sunset tours on the Western Union leave from the bottom of William Street every night at 6:30 p.m. Purchase tickets at the dock, or for reservations call 292-1766.

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