'Sad' update after man spent $1 million on cruise ship but came across major issue while restoring it

Back in 2008 someone listed a derelict cruise ship for sale on Craigslist, and Christopher Willson decided to buy it.

He did a bit of research into the vessel's history and learned that it had been the first cruise ship built in Germany after the Second World War, and featured in the James Bond movie From Russia With Love as a base for the bad guys.

It's safe to say that the cruise ship was a bit of a diamond in the rough and would need a lot of polishing to be restored to its former glory, but Chris decided he was going to give it a jolly good go.

He described seeing the ship as 'almost the same as if you found an old '60s Corvette in the garage', and during his renovations he eventually moved onto the ship itself so he wouldn't have to keep going back and forth between his home and the dock.

After many years and about $1 million (£755,000) worth of renovations he was able to get a lounge, hallways and several cabins looking rather spectacular, and renamed the ship 'The Aurora'.

He bought the ship back in 2008 and hoped to renovate it (Kristina Werner-Meris/California Department of Fish and Wildlife/US Coast Guard)

Unfortunately there's been a very sad update in the story as the renovation has rather gone the way of an ambitious Grand Designs project.

Willson struggled with a major issue as an old military tugboat that was moored nearby sank and caused a pollution issue, meaning it would have been punishingly expensive to move and Chris would have had to spend about as much on getting it out of there as he already had on renovations.

In the end the man had to sell off his beloved project, saying the decision 'was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life' and he had lost sleep over it.

Even worse, a few months after selling the ship it was discovered that The Aurora had suffered a hole in the hull and was taking on water, meaning Willson's project was slowly sinking.

As such, CNN reported that the vessel has since been smashed into smithereens and demolished once and for all, taking all of the hard work that had gone into restoring the ship with it.

Chris had managed to renovate some of the rooms and even ended up living on the ship for a time, but he had to sell it and now it's destroyed (Instagram/@aurora_restoration_project)

Cruise historian Peter Knego, who has been following the Aurora's story, told CNN: "They’re demolishing it with these cranes that go in and just grind up the steel.

"It’s a really mean looking, horrible death for the ship."

Despite the way things have ended up with the ship, Willson told CNN he doesn't regret buying it and 'wouldn't trade that experience for anything'.

He tried his best.

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