I've heard the same thing a few times. When we were there in May of 2005 we went to the Helldorado parade, and it was hotter than helldorado! After 2-3 hours, we went to the 'Shoe for a cold drink. We were sitting at the bar, talking about the fixture and the story, and a couple of guys overheard us. They said they worked there, that the story was true, and they gave me permission to use flash to take a couple of pictures of the fixture (I'd previously tried to take pictures without the flash, with bad results). The fixture does look like something that belonged on a ship...