Discovery World – Milwaukee

Discovery World is a science and technology museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The museum is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of STEM majors through curiosity and creativity.

It was announced on September 15, 2022 that Discovery World had sold the S/V Denis Sullivan to the Boston-based World Ocean School.

This was controversial news for several reasons.  First and foremost is that one of the requirements for Michael Cudahy’s organization to obtain the land on which Discovery World is now located – prime, Lake Michigan-side property (and the location of the old Lake Ferry terminal) – was an agreement to curate the Sullivan.  Over a million volunteer man-hours went into the design and construction of the vessel, many years before there were plans to move and develop Discovery World to a new location.  Secondly, there was an organized group representing the volunteers who built the ship, called Friends of the Denis Sullivan.  Their members were off-put by the fact that the management of Discovery World never consulted them on the sale – giving them no opportunity to either fund-raise nor identify a Wisconsin-based organization to acquire the ship, keeping the Sullivan in her home state.

There has been speculation that Discovery World management expedited the sale of the tall ship to make room for the recent influx of Great Lakes cruise ships looking for places to dock and offload their passengers.  This lucrative opportunity would be well-received after more than a decade of costly science experiments and cultural contributions with the Sullivan.

[MMDI Editor’s Note:  While Discovery World has allowed maritime-themed musicians to volunteer at their facility in the past, now that they have sold the S/V Denis Sullivan their future engagement is in question.  The organization declined to participate in the MMDI.]