Greenpeace however, told MJ ? 1.05m had been paid. 'The outstanding amount is accounted for by the work that has not been done', spokeswoman Svenja Koch told MJ . She said the two-masted, 12 knot ship, originally for delivery in April, had not been ready by July when Greenpeace needed her.

The organisation had therefore signed 'a delivery protocol which stated in detail why the ship was not finished' when she was handed over, Koch said.

Unfinished items, Greenpeace said, included the hydraulics for lowering the ship's masts. 'This does not matter that much in the Baltic', said Koch, 'but when we want to sail on rivers, where we mainly plan to deploy the ship and where there are low bridges, we have to be able to lower masts'.

Beluga 11 replaces the 23.6 m Beluga , a converted fire-fighting patrol boat, which has served on Europe's rivers since 1984.

Yard MD Ralf Reinhardt was quoted as acknowledging there were some defects with the ship but as adding that these were not so serious as to warrant the withholding of a third of the building price. He also reportedly noted that Beluga 11 had been in service in August in the North and Baltic Seas - a fact which spoke for the seaworthiness of the newbuilding. Svenja Koch said Greenpeace had been 'very accommodating' and was 'not a hard-nosed corporation'. It regretted the shipyard's bankruptcy 'but it is wrong to blame Greenpeace for this'.