shipyard

For the ship itself, the final journey will be to a yet-to-be confirmed shipyard where it will be dismantled.

The 31-year-old ship returned from the Cammell Laird shipyard in Merseyside last month, but before it could carry passengers again, a new gearbox fault was detected which required several more weeks to fix.

The ferry has been built at a shipyard in Finland but it has to be moved out before winter because it could be damaged by pack ice.

"Everybody wants a picture of the cranes - I have customers who order from America, Asia and Australia who perhaps worked at the shipyard 30 years ago," he told BBC News NI.

The executive chairman of Harland and Wolff has said there is a strong case for keeping the company’s four shipyards under a single owner.