After taking more than a month to cross the Atlantic, the 15,000 tonne former US Navy Reserve vessel Caloosahatchee gradually inched its way into the mouth of the River Tees to Able UK_s Hartlepool dock at about midday.

It will now be held in storage until a legal battle is finalised in the English courts to determine whether it can be dismantled on Teeside or must make a return journey to the James River in Virginia, from where it departed on 6 October.

Last night the managing director of the breakers yard where the ghost ships are docking said his firm stood to lose millions of pounds if the deal doesn_t go through.

Peter Stephenson said Able UK stood to lose a £3.4 million bond ($5.6 million) if the work could not be completed.

Further contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds which depended on the dry dock that would be built to carry out the work were also at stake.

The other ship which made the Atlantic crossing alongside the first arrival, the Canisteo, will dock today, as there was not enough daylight to complete the three-hour journey up the river.

Checks on the ship to monitor any damage it had sustained during the voyage were immediately started by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The Environment Agency said it will make sure no dismantling is carried out and will perform regular water checks to make sure there have been no spillages.

Outrage among environmentalists and locals, who claim the vessels carry dangerous toxins and asbestos, has been caused by the arrival of the ships. They have been opposed to the £11million deal from the start, claiming the US should deal with its own waste and saying the 4,000-mile trip was too dangerous for the derelict vessels.

But the company, which has won a bid to dismantle 13 such ships, stressed that it has the technical expertise to do the job safely and believed it could create a local growth industry.

Mr Stephenson said: "I have had inquiries for hundreds of millions of pounds worth of work, but if we do not get this it will be the end of the refurbishment of the dry dock."

Protesters, some of whom were armed with pea-shooters and flour bombs, apparently to represent the powerlessness they felt, clearly disagreed.

Caroline Spelman, the Conservative shadow environment minister, attended a Friends of the Earth meeting and demanded that the government should explain its handling of the deal.

She said a clear "breach of law" had occurred as the ships were sent to this country without having the correct licences for dismantling work to be carried out.

Tony Juniper, the executive director of Friends of the Earth, said that he was not convinced by claims that the US fleet was no more heavily polluted than everyday shipping.

He added: "The government must hold an urgent public inquiry to establish how this situation has arisen."