SELKIRK — The days are numbered for the MS Lord Selkirk II, parked in the slough in Selkirk.
The ship hasn’t sailed the Red River for 25 years and is in the process of being torn apart.
But before it’s gone forever, Global News Reporter Lorraine Nickel got exclusive access on the boat Tuesday, something that’s never happened since the ship was retired in 1990.
“There was all table and chairs in here,” Ben Hoosier said as we entered the third deck, “there was a dance floor, real fancy lighting, a bar, the kitchens in the back.”
RELATED: Rotting MS Lord Selkirk II to be dismantled and removed from Manitoba slough
A Saskatoon company, SaskSteel, is cutting the ship up and sending the metal to the mill in Selkirk.
Hoosier says since they started working on the ship in early September, there’s been a lot of public interest in what they’re doing.
“We’ve had a lot of observers from the road and the park over here people are curious, we’ve had a few trying to get in, they’re pretty determined,” said Hoosier, “this is neat, they see us doing it and no one really knows how we’re doing it.”
Hoosier says his crew of 8 have already cleaned out the ship of all the garbage, filling seven BFI bins.
“There wasn’t as much nasty stuff on the ship as we anticipated,” Hoosier said, “lots of garbage, lots and lots of garbage but there’s been a lot less asbestos less hazardous stuff than we expected.”
Hoosier and his crew have found some interesting artifacts on the boat, like tools from when the ship was built in the 1960s and wine glasses and paper plates that survived an arson in 2012. A fire Hoosier says helped with the clean up.
“It cleaned up a lot of garbage, all tables, couches all of that was gone,” Hoosier said, “the only real dangerous part now is when we move these big pieces because they’ll crush you.”
The next step is cutting up the ships steel floor and walls piece by piece using an excavator to pull each piece carefully from the boat.
“When it comes time to remove (the steel), everybody is off the ship, I run the excavator, I have one guy that hooks chains, he hooks the chain, he goes to a designated safe area and we move the piece.”
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The province and city of Selkirk announced in July they would share the $400,000 cost of dismantling the rusting, toxic boat.
For 17 years, the elegant ship carried 130 passengers and 40 crew up and down the Red River and to Lake Winnipeg.
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After a drop in passengers and the ship being sold to different businessmen, it made its final voyage in 1990 and was parked in the slough in Selkirk ever since, rusting and leaking toxic waste into the river.
Hoosier says the ship only had two life boats that fit 31 passengers each. One will go to the Marine Museum in Selkirk the other, his foreman wants to keep as a keepsake.
He says his crew have become attached to the ship and are sad to see it go.
“It cost around a million plus dollar to build it, today it would be 20 million dollars,” Hoosier said, “so no ones going to build it again, so once it’s gone it’s gone.”
They hope to finish taking the ship apart by Nov. 11.
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