Built in 1914, the Floria in her heyday was one of North Queensland’s most famous boats — a 53-foot vessel manned by pearl diving crews seeking fortune on the Great Barrier Reef.

She was the fastest pearl lugger in the Torres Strait, and something of a folklore figure on Darnley and Mer Islands.

Children sang songs about her and aspired to work on the lightning quick vessel.

Recent years have not been kind to the Floria, and she is bound for the scrapyard.

Owned by the Cairns Maritime Museum but stored for the best part of a decade in the yard of the Wooden Boat Association of Cairns, the craft is now a rotting mess.

A Ports North spokeswoman said the boat had become a cyclone hazard.

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The Cairns Post understands Down to Earth Demolitions will use special machinery to break the ship down to its finer parts today.

“As a result of safety concerns raised by Ports North and adjoining land owners in relation to a vessel wreck Floria salvaged from Trinity Inlet after sinking some 20 years ago, Ports North in consultation with the Cairns Maritime Museum will arrange for the dismantling and removal of the vessel from the site in Tingira St,” she said.

“It was identified last year that the vessel is in a sad and dangerous state of disrepair and poses significant safety concerns if the vessel falls apart or becomes airborne during a dangerous weather event.

“After discussions with the Cairns Maritime Museum regarding the vessels removal, Ports North agreed to assist, pay for and manage the dismantling and removal.”

The Daily Mercury in January 1924 reported the Floria had been used to transport illegal Japanese immigrants to Australia.

“According to a statement made by the Secretary of the Home and Territories Department, Mr McLaren, today, precautions have always been taken by the authorities to prevent the ‘running’ of aliens, particularly into the north of Queensland,” the newspaper said.

“It is believed that the two Japanese for whom search is being made at Mackay, will shortly be captured.

“These Japanese, it is alleged, were included in a party of 11 aliens who were landed in Queensland from pearling luggers.

“Nine of these men have already been arrested, and six convictions of being prohibited immigrants have been obtained and proceedings are being taken against the other three men.”

A Department of Commerce and Agriculture document chronicling the history of the pearling industry of Australia, published in 1955, further described the scandal.

“Charges were made in late 1923 that Australian-owned Japanese luggers were fishing in Papuan territorial waters and elsewhere, but the owners were inclined to be sceptical,” it said.

“Then the Floria, owned by the Wybern Pearling Company was arrested by Noumea Customs for fishing in New Caledonian waters, in direct defiance of the owner’s specific instructions.

“Not content with this offence, the Japanese master of the Floria returned to Australia and landed Japanese prohibited immigrants.

“In December of the same year, a complaint was forwarded to the Governor-General regarding the presence of three Japanese ketches in the Solomon Islands.

“One of these was from Thursday Island and the Japanese master claimed he had been blown off the Queensland coast, a tale treated sceptically by the Resident Commissioner.”

Most luggers were scuttled during World War II to avoid them falling into enemy hands, but the Floria survived as her diesel engine was deemed too precious.

She stayed in hot demand until the widespread advent of cultured pearls — made in farms instead of the wild — made the humble pearl lugger a relic of history.

Eventually, during the 2002 cyclone season, she sunk at her moorings in Trinity Inlet.

Her restoration became the focus of a Work for the Dole program in the same year, but it never really eventuated.

The level of excitement over the vessel’s restoration was immortalised by renowned Torres Strait Islander musician and former pearl diver Seaman Dan’s song The Floria Sails Again in 2004.

Seaman Dan had skippered its sister ship the Grafton in the 1960s, but sadly his song title’s prediction never came true.

Cairns Maritime Museum curator Jon Burnett told the Cairns Post the old lugger was simply too far gone — and the threat of cyclone only too real.

“Termites have caused irrevocable structural collapse of the fantail counter stern, an elegant feature of the pearl lugger,” he said.

Only a few examples of the old ships remain in the water, in the safekeeping of the big maritime museums of Perth, Darwin, Brisbane and Sydney.

“Our Cairns Maritime Museum has restored the 80-year-old HB (pearl lugger) and is combining a travelling exhibition with a marine training program encompassing a floating museum,” he said.

“In the field along the east coast, traditional ship-keeping and rigging skills are preserved while at sea while under sail.”