After all the argument, U-turns, claims and counter-claims the first two ghost ships will finally arrive in Teesside today. Gavin Havery looks at what they will contain.

THE defiant businessman behind the controversial deal to scrap America's unwanted ghost ships in the North-East has pledged to win the legal battle that will allow him to complete the contract.

Peter Stephenson, managing director of Hartlepool firm Able UK, countered protestors who said the former US naval reserve vessels were heavily polluted.

He maintains that Able's facilities are more than capable of decomissioning the four rusting hulks en-route to the North-East.

Although the ships are not carrying cargo, with the exception of hazardous material abandoned when they were taken out of service, environmentalists insist the vessels pose a pollution risk.

Much of the hazardous material still aboard is contained within the fabric of the hulls and may not always be obvious. Most of it cannot be removed until the ships are dismantled.

By far, the largest proportion of toxic material is the asbestos used for fire and heat insulation. It can also be found protecting pipework.

On average, asbestos makes up about 1.4 per cent of the total weight of each vessel.

Polychlorinated biphenyles (PCBs) are a group of chemicals which have been linked with cancer.

In their liquid form these materials can be found in old transformers, capacitators and hydraulic equipment.

The Americans gave an undertaking to remove all liquid PCBs before transport but solid PCBs are still present in cable insulation, rubber gaskets, fibreglass, foam, switches, bushes and any plasticizers.

Some of this material has been stripped away, but the US agencies only gave an undertaking to remove easily accessible solid PCBs.

Other material aboard includes oily water, mainly in bilge, and ballast, used for maintaining an even weight distribution. Ballast could not be pumped out of the ships because it is needed to make the hulls sit correctly in the water.

Groups including Friends of the Earth say they are appalled that the ships have to travel thousands of miles to be dismantled.

Many of the ships have been at anchor in the James River, in the State of Virginia, for decades. The burgeoning numbers led people to dub them the Ghost Fleet because they were abandoned apart from the small teams of welders and platers who patched them up as the sprung leaks.

Environmentalists say decades of neglect can turn deckplates into quicksand. Able UK and its American partner, the US Maritime Administration, say that is nonsense. They maintain the vessels are in good order.

Fears that the ships could break up en-route from America, proved unfounded, but a US court was not prepared to take a chance with the other nine which cannot now be moved until next spring.

The possibility of a disaster in heavy seas has also been cited as the main reason why the ships cannot head back to America straight away.

Environment Minister Margaret Beckett last week said the first two ships could dock in Hartlepool for the winter but insisted they should be sent back to the US because the company does not have the correct licensing to manage the waste.

She said the second two vessels should turn around immediately, but they continue to make their way across the Atlantic to Britain. A High Court injunction prevents any work from beginning until legal challenges are heard next month.

But Mr Stephenson said he was confident his legal team would win a hearing at the High Court on December 8.

He said: "We have got a number of legal advisors and at the moment everything we are hearing is fully supportive of our position. We feel very comfortable."

He described the confusion over the whole deal as a fiasco, having firstly had the backing of the Environment Agency and Hartlepool Council, then seeing it withdrawn.

But Phil Michaels, legal advisor to Friends of the Earth, said: "We are not talking about a single piece of missing or unresolved paperwork.

"The fact is that all of the key licences and permissions that Able require to carry out this work have either been declared invalid or lapsed by the relevant regulators."