There was a time when donations worth thousands of dollars poured in to the offices of the Sea Lion Project.

After decades of research, construction of the Sea Lion, a 16th century merchant ship replica, began in earnest in 1974. The ship made its first voyage on Chautauqua Lake in M ay 1985 and was commissioned in August 1985.

Then, the money troubles began.

All of the Sea Lion Project’s employees were laid off and the ship’s marina on Sea Lion Drive sold as fundraising drives came up short. The ship didn’t sail in 1986 and 1987, though paying passengers were able to take trips on Chautauqua Lake in 1988. In the winter of 1989-1990, 4.5 tons of lead ballast was removed and stolen, limiting the Sea Lion to dockside tours and limited passenger sailing that summer. The ship was nearly irrevocably damaged that winter, too, when there wasn’t enough money to pay for equipment to free it from ice on Chautauqua Lake. From the fall of 1990 to May 1992 the Sea Lion was docked at McCrae Point in Jamestown and vandalized several times before being sold to the Buffalo Maritime Society for educational purposes. The ship was transported by land to Barcelona and then towed on Lake Erie to Buffalo, where she eventually sunk at her moorings in 1990.

Chautauqua County natives, led by diver Sam Genco, spent more than 600 hours at the bottom of Lake Erie making repairs to bring the Sea Lion back from the depths of the Buffalo harbor and transport the ship to its new home near Barcelona Harbor, where it has sat on a beach ever since. A dedicated group of volunteers has done what it can, but money has been as big a problem in the 2000s as it was for the Sea Lion in the 1980s. Now, a Virginia company has plans to do what our area has not – restore the Sea Lion back to its original glory and use it as a teaching vessel.

The Sea Lion is a living, breathing part of Chautauqua County thanks to the foresight, blood, sweat and tears of Ernie Cowan and the legions of volunteers and donors who made the Sea Lion a reality in the 1980s. The ship will likely never sail again, but it should remain in Chautauqua County as the sterling example of 16th century shipbuilding it once was and the testament to hard work and ingenuity it has always been.

It is time to see if area residents can stomach one more attempt at restoring the Sea Lion and returning it to Barcelona Harbor. It would be a shame to lose something for which so many people sacrificed so much.