While the 23-year-old, 360-foot-long American Empress cruise ship is being stripped of its superstructure for conversion into a deck barge, the borough is looking at buying four diesel generators to use as a backup power source for industrial development plans at the former 6-Mile mill site.

The dismantling and conversion work started last month at the Tideline Construction operation at 6-Mile, where the company runs a scrap metal recycling business and is taking apart the Empress for the ship’s owner, American Cruise Lines.

The four Caterpillar diesels each turn an 1,825-kilowatt generator, according to the ship’s specifications. The units drove a pair of 2,000-horsepower electric motors that propelled the ship during its life of river cruises and summer trips in Southeast Alaska.

The generators also powered the ship’s bow thrusters and the 36-foot-tall paddlewheel at the stern of the ship.

Borough Manager Mason Villarma reported to the assembly Dec. 16 that the municipality and its consultant will inspect the diesel units and get back to the assembly. He did not report a possible cost for the acquisition.

Wrangell runs on hydropower from the Tyee Lake project on the mainland south of town but maintains a fleet of standby diesel generators for when Tyee goes offline or, such as this past weekend, when extreme cold creates more demand and additional electricity is needed.

Wrangell is pursuing opportunities for private companies to develop the former 6-Mile mill property — which the borough owns — into a shipyard or for other industrial use to boost the town’s economy. The generators would help with that economic expansion.

“Shipbreaking has been a service our businesses have provided for a long time throughout Southeast Alaska, in between construction jobs,” William Tonsgard III, owner of Tideline Construction, said in an email Dec. 17. “Customers include the U.S. Coast Guard, state of Alaska, private parties and city governments.”

The difference with the American Empress, he said, “is this vessel isn’t going to be fully dismantled by the end of the work.”

American Cruise Lines is in negotiations with the borough to possibly lease tidelands on the downtown waterfront for a new floating dock — the Empress converted into a deck barge — for use by the company’s ships when they call on Wrangell.

The ship was built in 2002 at the Nichols Brothers yard on Whidbey Island, Washington, for about $50 million. The ship entered service in 2003 as the Empress of the North for Majestic America Line. It had capacity for about 230 passengers and sailed Alaska’s Inside Passage, the Pacific Northwest and Columbia River.

The Empress last cruised Southeast Alaska waters in 2008, serving other markets.

American Cruise Lines purchased the vessel in 2024 after its owner went bankrupt.

The family-owned cruise line, which never operated the Empress after the purchase, runs a fleet of 22 vessels in Southeast Alaska, Puget Sound, Pacific Northwest rivers, the U.S. Southeast and New England. It runs two of its ships, each 170-passenger capacity, in Southeast, often with overnight stops in port.