Scotland’s last remaining lightship could be setting sail for the scrap heap unless a new buyer is found in a matter of weeks.
The North Carr is currently docked in Dundee and is owned by the charity Taymara, who are desperate for someone to buy the ship and save her.
The estimated repair costs for the 90-year-old vessel are between £1.5m and £2m – money and skills the charity doesn’t have.
Director David Morrison told STV News: “In 2019 we had a major flood, we took in 30 tonnes of water and we went within about a few hours of it sinking altogether and the whole thing has gone from that.
“We put six patches but we’ve come time where we’ve got to decommission her or get something serious done to it.
“We have a moral obligation not to let her sink here because she would make a mess of the Victoria basin.
“We are at the end of the trail unless something magic happens.
“If somebody wants her, you can have her for a pound.”
North Carr is the last remaining Scottish lightvessel and is an important part of the city’s maritime history.
She moved between the Mull of Kintyre and the Mull of Galloway as a convoy guide for ships entering the Clyde during the Second World War.
She also stands as a memorial for the victims of the Mona lifeboat disaster in December 1959.
A crew of eight died after their lifeboat capsized and ran aground trying to rescue North Carr when she broke her moorings and began drifting in the stormy North Sea.
John Marley is a volunteer looking after the North Carr.
He is hopeful some of the historic items onboard can be saved and put into a maritime museum.
“Of course the light itself which shone for ten miles and the fog horn are parts we’d like to keep,” he said.
“Also artefacts from the engine room, the old engines and components from that and the lifeboats.”
Taymara chiefs have now placed formal notice to decommission North Carr unless a new buyer is found by January 5.
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