BUFFALO, N.Y. — It appears the City of Buffalo with the Naval and Military Park is making an even stronger pitch to help fund the costly repairs of the iconic ship USS The Sullivans.
2 On Your Side has learned about some significant updates on those efforts.
Tuesday in Albany, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown included in his funding wish list to state lawmakers a request for their help in getting $13 million to help repair the legendary World War II destroyer, but now also the World War Two submarine Croaker, which is located nearby. The city technically has responsibility for both of these museum ships, which are on loan from the U.S. Navy.
The now 80-plus-year-old USS The Sullivans sits at her berth with protective bubblers to stop Buffalo River and Lake Erie ice encroachment from her razor thin, weakened with age steel hull. This, of course, follows the near sinking of the ship in 2022 and is still in desperate need of hull repairs at a lakeside drydock.
But now Naval and Military Park President and CEO Paul Marzello says there is also the realization that the nearby submarine USS Croaker needs similar repairs.
"We pointed out to the city and all interested parties that there was a significant savings if we could do both ships at the same time," Marzello said.
"The Croaker is probably in just as bad a condition, but it was going to be two or three years down the road before we could renew the funding to get her taken care of. Let's be smart about it, and I think the mayor is well aware that we can do it all at the same time."
To make it happen, there will be large scale efforts to move the bigger, adjacent cruiser warship, the USS Little Rock, to get the Sullivans and Croaker free from their Canalside berths and out for tugboat towing. There will also be necessary dredging of the Buffalo River for proper depth clearance.
"We'll have to send divers down. They'll have to unbolt that platform, have to be craned out, and give her a little bit more room as a turning radius so we can get her out," Marzello said.
All this preparation work for the actual towing of the somewhat fragile Sullivans and Croaker on Lake Erie to a drydock at either Erie, Pa.; Hamilton, Ontario, or Toledo, Ohio. Marzello says that is now slated for October 2025.
"Toledo is big enough that they can take both ships at the same time. It's also the farthest, which has the most concern, the most risk to take," Marzello said.
The projected total cost is at $21 million. There is already $7.5 million in hand between U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer's office and State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, so Marzello says it's $13 million to go with this pitch to the state and elsewhere.
"In my view, maybe it's overly optimistic, but I am very confident that we're going to figure this out and get the funds necessary to preserve these ships," Marzello said.
Now if they don't do anything for the ships, which are owned by the city on loan from the U.S. Navy, more deterioration could end up costing more. The U.S. Navy could reclaim them, and Marzello says the city could be charged for the extra costs of completely cleaning them out and towing then out to the Atlantic Ocean for return to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
Then the ship could be sold for scrap metal, used for Navy target practice, or sunk as a reef for fish.
They are hoping of course that never happens and that plenty of national and international supporters of the historic ship, who offered assistance with the 2022 disastrous flooding, might get involved as well.