‘Pirates’ Scuttle a Chance at New Life for Ship : Salvage: The Princess Louise was to be donated for use as a reef. But a shipping firm, angry at illegal scavenging by divers, is now planning to sell the ship for scrap.

The former cruise liner Princess Louise, marooned for months in a Terminal Island shipyard, has been pirated by divers who hauled away an estimated $50,000 worth of brass, hand-painted windows and other antique fixtures from the 70-year-old vessel, police said.

The scavenging of the 330-foot ship, once known as the “Queen of the Northern Seas,” has convinced its pending owner to sell it for scrap rather than donate it to the state Department of Fish and Game for use as an artificial reef for fishing and diving off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

“Why should I give it to divers after what has happened?” said Wilem Boelman, whose Vancouver shipping and salvage firm this week raised the Princess Louise for the first time since it mysteriously capsized at a shipyard Oct. 30.

The ship, owned by the Bank of San Pedro, will officially become the property of Boelman’s firm--Trinav Shipping Ltd.--once the vessel is safely afloat for 24 hours.

Laboring since early April to raise the 2,300-ton vessel from its side, salvage crews finally succeeded late Monday in lifting the ship sufficiently to begin repairs that might once again make it seaworthy enough for towing. When that happens, however, Boelman said he will sell the vessel to a steel scrap yard in Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, a port city about 120 miles north of Acapulco.

The pirating of the Princess Louise is the latest sad entry in the ship’s log.

A San Pedro fixture for 20 years, the vessel fell on hard times in 1988 when its owner at the time, who ran it as a dockside restaurant, filed for bankruptcy. Repossessed by the Bank of San Pedro, the Harbor Department ordered the ship out of its berth underneath the Vincent Thomas Bridge last year.

Then, as it went begging for a buyer, the vessel capsized in Berth 241 while undergoing repairs that might have helped it to sell. The cause of its sinking is in dispute between the bank and Southwest Marine Inc., the shipyard that had been repairing the vessel when it capsized.

What is not in dispute, however, is how the vessel was pirated this spring by a handful of divers as it sat on its starboard side and half submerged in the Terminal Island berth.

“They raped it,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Joe Bustos, who coordinated a Harbor Division investigation into the case.

According to Bustos and others, the divers, whose identities are known, pillaged the ship over the course of several months, even throwing an Easter weekend party atop its partially submerged hull. “They called it ‘The Rape of the Princess Louise’ party,” said Boelman.

But none of the divers will be prosecuted, police said, because Boelman’s testimony would be needed at legal proceedings, and he says he cannot afford to return repeatedly from Vancouver.

Hauling off hundreds of brass fixtures, leaded windows and other items, the divers brazenly returned time and again to steal from the vessel, officials said.

“They took away everything they could unscrew, cut or burn away. It was just incredible,” said Boelman, who originally placed the loss at $35,000 but this week raised that estimate to $50,000.

Several weeks ago, Boelman said, the identities of the thieves became known when some of the stolen items--including two huge ship’s wheels of Honduran mahogany--were found in a van outside the West Los Angeles home of one of the divers. “We caught the guy red-handed,” Boelman said.

Boelman said he agreed not to press charges so long as the other fixtures stolen from the ship were returned. Then last week, the divers had the gall to return two bulbs from the ship’s brass lamps and say that was all they had taken, he said.

“I want the stuff back but I don’t want to have to come back and forth from Vancouver to go to court,” he said.

Detective Bustos confirmed that Boelman’s reluctance to press charges has, thus far, foiled the ability of authorities to prosecute the divers. “This is one of the most frustrating cases I’ve ever been involved with,” said Bustos, a 19-year LAPD veteran.

Frustrated, Boelman said the divers’ refusal to return the stolen items convinced him to cancel plans to sell the ship to state Fish and Game for $1. Instead, Boelman said, he is negotiating to sell the Princess Louise for an estimated $175,000 to the scrap yard in Mexico. “If we can work out a price, it’s theirs,” Boelman said. In addition, Boelman’s firm and two other salvagers will split a $1-million salvage fee from Southwest Marine, which has been losing business while the ship sits at the bottom of its dry dock.

Lance Oak, president of the Bank of San Pedro, said Wednesday he was unaware of Boelman’s plans and doubted the bank had legal authority to challenge Boelman now that the ship is afloat.

“The intent was to do something with the boat that would benefit local divers. That is what we were hoping to do. But I don’t think the bank can do anything about Wilem’s (Boelman’s) plan.”

Boelman’s decision, however, troubled John Grant, associate marine biologist for the local office of state Fish and Game. “Certainly, I’m not angry with him because the boat has obviously been ripped off,” Grant said. “But I am disappointed that the boat will not be used as a reef. We put a lot of time and work into that plan. And it would have been a great project.”