The Princess Jacqueline is finally leaving Port Alberni this morning.
After weeks of behind-closed-doors negotiations and court hearings, the former BC Ferry Queen of Esquimalt will be towed to Ensenada Mexico where it will be scrapped.
According to sources, the Mexican buyer paid the Port Alberni Port Authority for what was owing for moorage and insurance, while other companies owed monies for work on the ship received nothing.
It will take the 80-foot tug from San Diego two weeks to get the 9300-ton ship to its final destination, where the many engines will be removed, the 100,000 litres of diesel will siphoned off, and the steel cut up and recycled.
The decommissioned vessel arrived in Port Alberni in October, 2008 still sporting its old BC Ferries paint job.
The former Queen of Esquimalt was sold in July 2009 to owners from China, who wanted to convert the old V-Class vessel into a cargo vessel.