HONOLULU -- A community group has come forward with a plan to try to save the Falls of Clyde ship from being sunk off Waianae.

The National Historic Landmark is owned by the Bishop Museum. The museum said it would scuttle the vessel if a detailed plan to take it over is not delivered by Monday.

The Falls of Clyde was the only surviving fully-rigged, four-masted sailing ship in the world before the Bishop Museum took down its rigging in the last month, in preparation for scuttling the rusting, deteriorated vessel.

Now, a community group has formed, calling itself "Friends of Falls of Clyde," with a plan to save the 130-year-old ship.

"Let us take over the insurance, let us take over the responsibility for the stewardship of it," Bruce McEwan said.

McEwan said he can get insurance for the vessel, costing about $32,000 annually, and has arranged to send it to dry-dock here later this year. He estimated it would cost $1 million to $2 million to stabilize it.

"People in the maritime industry are having a difficult time understanding why anybody would want to sink a historical landmark," McEwan said.

However, the Bishop Museum said those estimates are unrealistically low. The museum said it got a quote from the same shipyard in Hawaii that said it would cost about $9 million just for basic repairs to the Falls of Clyde.

"The ship remains uninsured and uninsurable, and we're in hurricane season so the risk is squarely on our shoulders right now," Bishop Museum Chief Operating Officer Blair Collis said.

Collis said he is hopeful the group will provide more specifics by their Monday deadline.

"We need to find a way to either have a new caretaker come forward with a specific plan or have to dispose of the vessel," Collis said.

McEwan blamed Bishop Museum for the disrepair of an island landmark.

"It is a visible sign to everybody in the community that Bishop Museum did not do its job," McEwan said.

The museum said it has spent more than $2 million repairing the ship over the last 10 years, but acknowledged that was not enough to properly maintain it.