Glen Rosa: Crowds gather to watch CalMac ferry launch on the Clyde

That’s a hotly contested topic.

The contract was awarded to Ferguson’s in 2015, a year after it had been rescued from administration by businessman Jim McColl just before the previous year’s independence referendum.

The government-owned ferries procurement body CMAL claims it then all went wrong due to “catastrophic contractor failure”.

Mr McColl claims he was handed a poisoned chalice by CMAL which, he says, put a poorly-specified concept design out to tender, then made repeated requests for design changes.

In order to hit production – and payment – milestones, steel fabrication went ahead without a settled design in place.

The dual fuel LNG propulsion system, while an established technology, also caused problems for the design team who struggled to find ways of fitting in the extra equipment to the satisfaction of UK regulators.

The yard was also undergoing an extensive modernisation programme which made for difficult working conditions as buildings were demolished and rebuilt.

Mr McColl’s claim for extra costs – and requests for an independent technical review – were rejected by CMAL which insisted there was no contractual reason for it to pay any more.

The stalemate saw the yard fall back into administration in 2019 – and it was subsequently nationalised.