Close to 4,000 square feet, on the water, in the City of Vancouver, for less than $300,000. There must be a catch, right?

Actually, there are several, but Mike Fournier and Judy Ross hope the price and the opportunity to own a piece of history will make this property attractive to the right buyer.

The first, and most obvious, thing that makes the former HMCS Fortune unique is that it’s a boat - a decommissioned Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper built in 1954, to be exact.

“It was a minesweeper, an active vessel in the Canadian Navy that saw some service actually in 1961 in Cuba in the Bay of Pigs,” said Ross, the real estate agent listing the live-aboard vehicle for sale.

After its time in the Navy, the vessel was sold and eventually used by Greenpeace for protests in the 1970s.

The “one-of-a-kind” ship is 152-feet long, and was built to sleep 55 military men. When it was built, it had 17 toilets and 15 showers, but it has since been updated to include some more homey touches.

“The kitchen, living room, and our bedroom and ensuite … I think it would be pretty similar to anything you’d have at home,” said Fournier, the boat’s current owner. “We’ve taken out various areas where we planned to do things differently, so our master bedroom was three bedrooms and two bathrooms.”

The sheer size of the vessel is another catch. While a prospective buyer would save a lot of money on a mortgage compared to the cost of a similarly sized condo, he or she would also have to pay moorage fees, which could get quite high depending on where the vessel was docked.

Still, Ross told CTV News she has already received several calls about the Fortune, from people looking to own a historic boat, or just to be able to take their home with them when they want to get away.

“To me, the giggle-factor is you have a floating home,” Fournier said. “If we plan to go somewhere, we can cut the lines and bugger off for the weekend.”

With files from CTV Vancouver’s Michele Brunoro