The new Chief Curator and Deputy Director at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum says he appreciates the shipbuilding history of Manitowoc that continues to this day at Burger Boat.
Kevin Cullen is a native of Ireland and has been in the museum field for the past 20 years following graduate school.
During a recent appearance on WOMT’s Be My Guest, Cullen spoke about the February fundraising effort to eventually dry-dock the U.S.S. Cobia as part of the “28 days 28 boats” campaign.
“It started off with Peto which was USS 265 in chronology of the 28 subs that were built here,” he explained. “And it went down the line to Pogy, Pompon, Puffer, Rasher and so on. It’s great because we have all these photographs that we can highlight and tell a little bit of the story in social media whether its on facebook or Instagram.”
Kevin Cullen
Cullen explains the idea is not only to gain interest in the importance of these vessels but also to encourage people to donate $28.00 if they can to help keep the World War II submarine ship-shape for another 80-years.
“We had an anonymous donation actually of $28,000, which is 28 dollars plus 3 zeroes!” he revealed. “We really thank those kinds of people that step forward and recognize the importance of this icon in the city of Manitowoc.”
The 3-year campaign will continue of course and was boosted by that $28,000 dollar donation by a local anonymous donor as well as what he termed a “wonderful donation” from the National Park Service as well as major backing by local financial institutions Bank First and Nicolet Bank.
Cullen says they hope to have the underhull inspection work performed on the Cobia at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay by 2025.
