PEOPLE could be forgiven for wondering if the troubled ferry Glen Sannox will ever take up her proposed Ardrossan-Brodick run, as she has become something of a permanent fixture on her berth at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow. Dogged by construction problems and intrigue as to who is behind many of the key decisions made in her design, the ship is set to be the centre of controversy for some time to come. The following five pictures track the vessel's long and winding road to her completion. Former Transport Minister Derek Mackay visited the Ferguson Marine fabrication shed in 2016 to perform the honours by cutting the first steel plate of the vessel known at the time as Hull 801.

THIS shot shows the arrival of the vessel's pressurised fuel tank which, in service, will require replenishment by four to six tanker loads a week. The gas itself will already have made a sea journey of 8,000 miles to reach Scotland. The spent fuel will produce methane, a gas that is 28 times more harmful to the environment than CO2.

THE second car ferry to bear the name Glen Sannox slipped into the cold waters of the Clyde in the November of 2017. The launch heralded a change in fortunes for troubled Ferguson Marine after a turbulent few years of uncertainty.

FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon and yard owner Jim McColl rejoiced on launch day as the 102- metre Glen Sannox made her way down the slipway into a sea boiling with controversy, blame and an uncertainty.

NO sooner had the vessel hit the water than she was brought back to dry land for engineers to remedy the problem of her curiously upward-pointing bulbous bow. This shot shows the ship entering Dales Marine in Greenock, where remedial work would take place. Glen Sannox now stands again at the fitting-out berth back in Port Glasgow as she awaits her completion some five years after her launch.