A long-serving marine surveyor has praised Teesside "ghost ship" dismantler Able UK.
Alyn Fife has worked in the shipping industry in Virginia - on the US river where the so-called ghost fleet is being held - since 1940.
He is widely regarded as an authority on maritime matters.
Last year, after Able UK announced it had secured a deal to dismantle some of the ships, he was asked to judge which would manage an Atlantic crossing.
Soon after that the affair blew up into an international storm.
Green groups on both sides of the Atlantic objected to the deal.
The US government department involved was challenged and had to put the deal on ice, while a judge decides the fate of a second group of nine ships.
In the UK, Able was prevented from beginning the work after it emerged licences and permits it held to do the job were not valid. Now the company is drawing up applications for new permits.
Mr Fife, 82, believes the remaining US ships need shifting soon. "When legal people start fooling around with these things it can go on for years," he said. "And the ships are still deteriorating all the time."
He suggested those who made the challenges should pay for the ships' upkeep in the interim. "At the moment the taxpayer is having to pay and I don't think that's fair," he said. "Able is a first-class outfit. They know exactly what they are doing. I would have no problem with them dealing with the ghost ships."
