KEY POINTS:
The charitable trust that has taken the decommissioned Navy frigate, the HMNZS Canterbury, to the Bay of Islands to sink as a dive attraction has decided it will be scuttled on Saturday, October 20 - two days before the 36th anniversary of the frigate's commissioning in 1971.
The 113m Canterbury, now being stripped at Opua wharf in preparation for its new role, will be sunk in Deep Water Cove near the entrance to the Bay of Islands.
About $400,000 is expected to be raised from the sale of scrap metal from the ship and so far, seven truckloads of metal have gone to a Whangarei-based scrap buyer.
An 18-strong wrecking crew is concentrating initially on recovering high value non-ferrous metal such as copper in the vessel's kilometres of wiring.
Stripping operations manager Norm Greenall says a recent public open day produced offers to buy a number of items including the entire captain's galley, dials, gauges, telephones and signs.
The Canterbury's propeller has already sold for $20,000 and there is strong demand for the crew's aluminium gear lockers which are priced at $25 each.
The trust will raise a total of about $650,000 for the entire venture.
This includes around $85,000 to cover the expected costs of bringing in an overseas expert to scuttle the ship and the explosives needed to send the Canterbury to its final resting place.
Licences are needed to import the explosives and the trust is negotiating with the Canadian expert who was in charge of scuttling the HMNZS Wellington several years ago.
