Treasure hunter from Alabama buys motor yacht marooned on Beer Can Island

Bill Warren, a treasure hunter, singer, and disputed owner of a Caribbean island, has purchased the marooned and Internet-famous boat beached by its previous owner on Hudson’s Beer Can Island. According to the bill of sale signed Nov. 2, he paid $250.

Currently residing in Alabama but hailing from San Diego, Calif., Warren now inherits the more expensive problem of lifting the sunken aft quarters of the 54′ Bluewater Intercoastal motor yacht named Sweet Destiny from the St. Croix River.

“That’s going to be a treasure salvage boat,” Warren said.

His plan entails floating the boat, restoring its sodden interior and twin engines and then, with a documentary film crew in tow, coaxing it down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico where Warren intends to pilot Sweet Destiny to a sunken wreck he’s researched, a Spanish galleon laden with silver bars.

The improbable plan to turn a derelict river boat into a salt-water platform for hauling lost treasure from beneath the ocean is not unusual for Warren, who over the years has stitched together tales of nearly fantastic treasure hunts, quested after what he believes to be the underwater burial site of Osama bin Laden, and fought with the U.S. government over his ownership of a 2-mile island covered in bird poop. Each of these things has been covered extensively by newspapers and television news.

It was while working as a singer in Alaska in the 1970s that Warren began researching shipwrecks, he said. Enthralled with what might be, he moved to California, got his scuba diving certification, and bought a boat. A 1991 Los Angeles Times newspaper story describes Warren searching for the Trinidad, a sunken ship near Oceanside, Calif., rumored to carry millions of dollars of Aztec gold. His claim to have found the spot using an expensive underwater metal detector was thwarted by government action: his dig would require an environmental impact report costing tens of thousands of dollars and if he pulled anything valuable from the wreck he would have to turn it over to the state of California.

He claims his treasure hunting company went on to find some 150 wrecks over the decades. Warren said he recently received some archival materials from Seville, Spain, regarding a sunken vessel in the Gulf of Mexico, but what he needed was a boat.

He came across the story of Sweet Destiny while surfing the internet late one night. The boat’s description got even better when he read its price — previous owner Grayson McNew wanted a few hundred dollars for the vessel that, when new, costs well over $100,000. Warren said he called McNew and left several messages before they were able to connect.

Warren said McNew shared that he had replaced the boat’s propellers this summer, and either the packing around the propeller shafts or perhaps the boat’s rudder is what failed.

Using a new ordinance passed in September, Hudson city staff issued daily fines to McNew that started at $100 and then climbed to $1,400. Those remain McNew’s responsibility, said City Administrator Brentt Michalek. Warren, meanwhile, told Michalek this week that he’s the new owner but hasn’t yet sent in paperwork to prove it.

Warren said he’s spent the past week calling local barge companies for help removing Sweet Destiny from its island perch. No one seems to want to do it, he said.

So why not use a boat that’s listed for sale in Alabama, near his current home?

The price in Hudson is better, said Warren.

“That’s a lot of boat for $250.”