will be sunk off the West End on the afternoon of May 7, Director of Marine and Ports Ron Ross yesterday told The Royal Gazette .

Crews are presently filling the rusting 225-foot ship -- currently tied up at Marginal Wharf -- with ballast in preparation for her final journey to the Eastern Blue Cut area off of Dockyard, where she will be sunk as an artificial reef in about 90 feet of water.

The Xing Da was given to Bermuda by US authorities after the US Coast Guard and Marines seized it on the high seas last October. The Xing Da was carrying illegal immigrants from China to the US and was stopped 140 miles west of Bermuda.