Dennis Holland's Newport Beach Ship, Shawnee, Will Be Allowed To Remain In His Backyard (VIDEO)

The ship will sail on. Or, at least, it will sit on.

A Newport Beach shipbuilder said Saturday that the city has agreed to his plan to take the 1916 ketch apart and reassemble it in his backyard so that neighbors can't se it, the Associated Press reports.

Dennis Holland has been restoring the 72-foot Victorian-era ship, called Shawnee, in his sideyard since 2006 and had a permit to do so, but it expired last year when he refused to give a completion date. The city had filed a lawsuit against Holland and his wife in June, and the suit was about to go to trial.

In response to neighbors' complaints that the ship has been an eyesore, Holland plans to move his children's treehouse and to let his trees grow so that "only helicopters and airplanes" will be able to see the vessel, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Complicating Holland's battle with the city to keep his ship is his battle with prostate cancer, Patch reported. He has said that the stress of the dispute was not helping his health and that restoring the ship was therapeutic for him.

But he wasn't alone in his struggle. His threatened restoration drew attention from historic ship lovers across the country, and some individuals decked out in pirate costumes even attended a City Council meeting in March to support the shipbuilder, the Daily Pilot reports.

In the following video from June of last year, Holland, standing on Shawnee, responded to the news that the city filed a suit against him.