cargo and underworld triads, the decrepit and rusting Chinese freighter, Xing Da , promises to attract more positive attention later this month when it is sunk as one of Bermuda's premier dive sites and artificial reefs.

"We're still working on a final date (for the sinking),'' said Michael Burke, owner and operator of Blue Water Divers Co. "We'd like it to be sooner rather than later, though no date has been fixed.

"Right now we're looking at the end of April or the first week of May,'' he yesterday told The Royal Gazette .

The 225-foot freighter -- found adrift 140 miles to the west in early October, 1996, and subsequently towed under armed US Marine escort to the Island -- will be scuttled in about 90 feet of water in area just outside the eastern Blue Cut area, said Mr. Burke.

"The whole thing should be quite spectacular,'' with the sinking promising to draw press attention from US-based dive magazines, as well as UK publications, he said.

For the last seven months teams of divers from the Bermuda Sub Aqua Club and local dive shops have been applying copious quantities of elbow grease in preparation for the sinking. The project meanwhile has proceeded with the enthusiastic blessing of the Ministry of Tourism and Marine and Ports.

The engines and hydraulic systems have all been bled dry and the ship has been cleaned of garbage: "We're just in the final clean-up stage now, soaking up a bit of residual oil,'' said Mr. Burke.

On the designated day Marine and Ports will tow the Xing Da to the Island's northwest -- off Dockyard -- and the freighter's sea cocks will be opened.