Mr Lannagan added that the London firm, Clarksons, had recently taken over marketing the vessel and its assets.

The much-publicised £30m conversion of the former Russian ice-breaker, MV Paardeberg, into a multi-purpose ice-class support ship would have kept about 500 workers busy at A&P Tyne in Hebburn until the end of the year.

David Skentelbery, managing director of A&P Tyne, said: 'Obviously, we are trying not to lose money on the work we've already done on Ice Maiden I. This contract would have set us up for nine months, so this situation is very frustrating.'

C&M Group, who transferred the work away from the original shipyard at Atlantic Marine Shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, to the A&P Tyne shipyard in the UK’s northeast after problems with project overspend and the dismissal of two C&M directors, went into administration two weeks ago.

Mr Skentelbery went on to say that although the company has already two smaller ship repair contracts lined up, what is needed 'is a substantial piece of work to provide continuity for the yard. 'We have to go out and find this work to tide us over,' he adds.

Mr Lannagan commented that, Deloitte is 'looking for someone else to take on the project or take over the assets. Obviously, from many people's point of view it would be better if the project were to be taken over, but although there is a lot of interested parties at this stage, we don't know how this will be carried forward.'

The contract was to see the Ice Maiden I converted into a vessel able to accommodate 40 people, and operate in the harshest climates in the world. Amongst other things, workers at the Hebburn yard have been fitting more than 2,000 tonnes of steelwork to create new decks and machinery spaces.

C&M’s US-based arm, C&M Marine USA Inc has not followed the Scottish parent company into administration.