the air'', a shipping boss said yesterday.

The success or failure of the deal should be known within a week, said Mr.

Hans Christner, chairman of Effjohn.

Effjohn are the Swedish-Finnish owners of Sally Albatross , the ship planned as a dedicated visitor to St. George's next year.

A Florida consortium, Cruise Investments, is trying to buy the ship from Effjohn for around $150 million.

After re-building and a change of name to Her Majesty , she would then make weekly runs from Boston to Ordnance Island.

"We're still in a negotiation phase with a consortium,'' Mr. Christner said from St. Petersburg, Russia, where he was on a business trip.

"We have a letter of intent with them but it's subject to financing. I guess that's what the negotiation is about.'' He confirmed Cruise Investment's plan was to buy the ship and then charter it to others.

"It's still in the air. I would have thought that within this week, or maybe a couple of days into next week, we would know whether it can be done or not.'' Mr. Christner said his firm's information manager, Mr. Hakan Stenberg, was "stonewalling'' when he told The Royal Gazette on Monday there were no plans for Sally Albatross to leave her present run in the Baltic Sea. "He knows that we're doing this, but I think what he had in mind was that we don't enjoy reading about the fact that we're negotiating a sale, because it comes back to the crew and makes them worry.'' A Cruise Investments spokesman could not be reached for comment. But other shipping executives involved in the plan appeared highly confident of success.

Capt. Paris Katsoufis, president of Majesty Cruise Lines, said his company would "market, sell and operate'' the ship.

The charterer of the ship between May and October would be Boston Bermuda Cruising, and travel company Thomas Cook was involved in the deal because it would sell the cruises through its US branches.

"She will be coming,'' he said. "I'm telling you. We've spent so much money we're not going to let her not come.'' Asked about the purchase from Effjohn, he said: "I believe that within this week this is going to be finalised.

"There are a few points that have not been agreed.

"Not all the `i's have been dotted and the `t's crossed. But there is no doubt in my mind.'' Boston Bermuda Cruising president Mr. Stanley Buchin said he was "very confident'' the deal was going ahead.