NEWS 25 WEHT Evansville, Henderson, OwensboroLST in Evansville, Four Years Later

LST in Evansville, Four Years Later

story by Courtney Fischer

EVANSVILLE - It's been four years since the LST made Evansville it's home base. The World War II battle ship attracted hundreds of thousands in it's first year in the Tri-State. 

How is attendance now? A steady crowd, but attendance is no where near what it was year one. NEWS 25 learns the LST doesn't depend on the money it makes here.

When Kenneth Adams starts his tour aboard the LST, he brings the group back to World War II:

"I talk about this deck up here... how they hauled trucks. Over and over I say these are 18 year-old boys, from all over the United States. 120 of them. Most of these boys never been on a ship, never been on a boat, never on the water."

Tour groups are smaller than they used to be--as to be expected says the ship's captain.

"It's good enough that we're not disappointed but we would certainly like to get it a little higher. Maybe we've got to do more advertising," says Captain Bob Jornlin.

Up to 20,000 local visitors tour the boat each year, bringing in 200,000 dollars. That number doubles when the LST departs Evansville. 

In 2007, the boat docked in Illinois for 30 days--38,000 people visited.

In 2008, a Mississippi stop brought in 43,000 people.

"We have not gone to where a lot of people thought.  They thought we were going to be a ghost ship, and that is not the case," Jornlin says.

He says the ship makes money only when it travels.  On this Veterans Day, visitors travel here.  Don Lucas made the trip from southern Illinois with his cub scouts.

"Let them see part of history--something you don't get to see everyday," Lucas says.

The captain says its visitors like this that keep the ship afloat: "We're not new, so we're not news per say, but we'd love to have you here everyday."

He says LST directors are talking about upping their advertising, putting brochures in nearby hotels to attract visitors. 

It costs LST $75,000 a year to keep this boat running---the city pays for electricity and water, and it's free to dock.