Board seeking funds for Laffey

Burial would cost nearly as much as treatment, and so the Patriots Point Development Authority resolved Tuesday to try again to keep the warship Laffey alive.

A marine surveyor said he would not certify the ship to travel to the choppy waters at sea to become an artificial reef until it first moves to dry dock for repairs.

"Taking the Laffey out to the reef and giving her an honorable burial is not significantly less expensive than restoring her and bringing her back" on exhibit, said John B. Hagerty, the authority's chairman.

But with their renewed commitment to keep the fabled "Ship that Would Not Die" under Japanese kamikaze attacks, the authority tossed a $9 million question at state lawmakers: How are we going to pay for this?

The board passed a resolution Tuesday giving its leaders the authority to seek help from Columbia politicians.

Patriots Point officials began campaigning for state and federal funding months ago after revealing a $64 million master plan to redevelop the property and the increasingly desperate need for millions of dollars in ship repairs

alone.

Experts give the Laffey, which sprang more than 100 leaks late last year, just months before it sinks in place, perhaps less time in hurricane-churned waters. The attraction's other three ships also require attention.

Officials remain in negotiations with a Key West, Fla., group interested in acquiring the Coast Guard cutter Ingham. Patriots Point also toyed with moving the submarine Clamagore to a land exhibit and focusing its time and money on the aircraft carrier Yorktown.

The board will whittle proposals to develop its master plan to a short list of firms seeking the $250,000 contract next week. But Patriots Point still lacks a clear plan for getting the bigger pot of money needed for the redevelopment itself and maintaining the fleet in the meantime.

Hagerty said political leaders could keep that dialogue alive in the state Treasurer's Office.

"We need money and they know it, and we are very encouraged by the support," he said.

Rep. James Smith, D-Columbia, drove to Charleston for Tuesday's meeting. The grandson of a decorated World War II veteran who served onboard the Laffey, Smith told the board, "God bless your efforts."

But leaders offer little indication of how they can find money Patriots Point couldn't collect on its own. As Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, put it: "We're working up here trying to figure out if there's a way, in these bad economic times, to help."

Patriots Point's interim executive director Dick Trammell said, ideally, the attraction could have the money in place in time to move the Laffey by an Aug. 19 high tide that would provide enough leeway to move the ship without dredging.

Reached at his home in Maryland, Laffey Association president Sonny Walker promised his members would continue their regular maintenance on the ship, if Patriots Point preserves it. The group raised $33,000 to put toward repairs, but Walker told donors to stop sending money after learning the ship might become a reef.

"The Laffey Association will do everything physically possible, if they save this ship, to keep her in the condition that we want her in to be seen by the public," Walker said. "We'll do everything we can above the waterline."