King George V was sold on 3rd April 1975 to Nationwide Transport Ltd of Cardiff and moved to the Bute Dry Dock. After rotting away for 5 years she was sold to Bass Charington Ltd for conversion to a floating restaurant, to replace the former Clyde paddle steamer ‘Old Caledonia’ in London, which was gutted by a fire in 1980. However, on the 26 August 1981 during the refit, King George V herself was totally destroyed by a fire. She was moored in the Roath Basin for two years, until eventually towed away and beached near the mudflats on the foreshore between the Channel Drydock and the entrance to the Queen Alexandra Dock in 1984 and broken up.