The historic Falls of Clyde, closed to the public since last year because of its deteriorating condition, will undergo de-rigging and a shoring up of its hull as a safety precaution, Bishop Museum officials announced today.

The museum, through a news release, said a company from Port Townsend, Wash., has been hired for the project.

Workers from Brion Toss Yacht Riggers will this week begin removing the ship's four spars, topmasts and associated rigging, standing and running rigging, steel yards, wooden yards, jib boom, and main side supports. Other materials from the ship will be removed and the hull will be reinforced with steel to stabilize the ship.

"We decided to de-rig the Falls of Clyde and shore up its hull as safety precaution," said Timothy E. Johns, president and chief executive officer of Bishop Museum, the not-for-profit operator of Hawai'i Maritime Center, which owns the ship.

"We plan to eventually move the ship and wanted to be sure that it could be relocated without further compromising its condition."

The ship is currently moored at Honolulu Harbor.

An estimated $32 million would be needed to repair and restore the vessel, which was built in 1878 in Scotland and has been in Hawai'i since 1899, a news release from the Bishop Museum said.

The estimate was given by ship consultant Joseph W. Lombardi and his company, Ocean Technical Services. Museum officials said the ship has has suffered continued deterioration despite considerable ongoing efforts at restoration and preservation that has cost in excess of $2 million over the past 10 years.

In early 2007, Hawai'i Maritime Center made the decision to close the ship to public tours for safety reasons.

The Falls of Clyde was built in 1878 by Russell and Company in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland.

The ship was launched as the first of eight iron-hulled four-masted ships built for Wright and Breakenridge's Falls line. It was named after the Falls of Clyde, a waterfall on the River Clyde.

In 1899, Capt. William Matson purchased the ship and brought it to Honolulu, where it was registered under the Hawaiian flag. From 1898 to 1907, the Falls of Clyde was used as a transpacific passenger and freight-carrying vessel.

The ship was later sold and converted to a bulk tanker and then to a fuel-oil barge and floating gasoline depot before being decommissioned in 1959.

The Falls of Clyde changed hands twice before it was given to the Bishop Museum in 1968, after which it was transferred to Hawai'i Maritime Center in 1988, Bishop Museum said in the news release.