The much-beloved MV Lady Rose will be leaving Port Alberni in the spring of 2011, but she won't be going far.

Lady Rose Marine owner Mike Surrell has announced the sale of the historic pocket steamer to Jamie's Whaling Station, which has operated on the west coast for nearly three decades. Company president Jamie Bray said the Lady Rose would take up station in Tofino harbour.

"We're going to movie it to our marina and turn it into a maritime museum and floating restaurant," Bray said. A re-design is already in the works, and the plan is to use the original galley as the kitchen, he said. "It doesn't have to be huge - it just has to have good food," Bray said.

The intention is to put the Glasgow-built, 1930s-era vessel into period trim (the dining salon in particular), which is going to mean a lot of surveying, cleaning and re-configuring. The heavy work will be done starting next winter in Port Alberni, he said, with a target for completion of 2012.

"That's the 30th anniversary for Jamie's Whaling Station, so we plan to bring her in with a lot of fanfare," Bray said. The plan is to sail her to her new home under her own power, he added. "I've spoken to the Coast Guard, and they've assured me she's in good shape," Bray said.

"Mike assures me it runs. Whatever we do with her, we'll always be able to fire her up and take her out." Surrell said despite relinquishing the namesake vessel, his company will still operate as Lady Rose Marine. Finding a local buyer has taken some time, he noted.

"We've had interested parties who wanted to buy her, but they all wanted to take her off the Island," he said. "We had people from as far away as South America asking about her."

Originally christened Lady Sylvia, the re-named Lady Rose was the last of the Union Steamships that plied the B.C. Coast up to the late 1950s (Tofino was served by the Lady Norah). Surrell said he was saddened that Port Alberni Maritime Heritage Society president Ken Hutcheson, who passed away in December, was not on hand to see the Lady Rose passed into the hands of neighbours.

"Ken was a big help to me when I got into the business," Bray said. "He came out to Tofino and set up a meeting, and arranged for help in setting up the books."

Former co-owner Roland Smith, who came to work for original owners John Monrufet and Dick McMinn in 1979, said the sale is a bittersweet moment. The late Brooke George, who died in a climbing accident in September 2006, purchased the company from a Victoria holding company in 1982, and Smith took on an ownership role a few years later. "Brooke and I knew we were going to be facing this day," Smith said. "We operated her through her 70th year (2007), but Transport Canada was already putting a lot of pressure on older vessels. They reach a point where the re-fits become more and more expensive and you can't recoup the cost." Currently, the vessel can operate privately, as long as she doesn't carry paying customers, he explained.

So while the Lady Rose will never carry passengers, she will live on, Smith said, adding, "Pretty close by."

Jamie's Whaling Station operates nine vessels of various sizes out of Tofino and Ucluelet, and is a founding member of the Pacific Rim Association of Tour Operators.

This story is updated with corrected information.s