The old Texas Clipper oceangoing classroom ship will be sunk on Thursday -- and become an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico.

Texas Parks and Wildlife says the more than 60-year-old former maritime training vessel will be sunk off South Padre Island -- weather permitting.

The 473-foot ship for years ferried students from Texas A&M University at Galveston around the world.

From 1965 until 1994, the Texas Clipper was used as a floating classroom for maritime science, oceanography and marine biology students at A&M's Galveston campus.

It previously was an ocean liner.

The ship -- during World War II -- was the USS Queens and carried troops and wounded from the battlefield.