Four years ago, the Maritime Administration announced a $17.8 million deal to scrap 13 junk ships from the James River Reserve Fleet at a British salvage yard that never had done such work.

Environmentalists on both sides of the Atlantic protested and sued over the contract with the British yard, Able UK, while American shipbreaking firms cried foul, too.

To date, no Virginia vessel has ever been disposed of under the deal - not even the four ships that were towed across the ocean in 2003 and today sit idle near the English coastal town of Hartlepool.

On Thursday, the Maritime Administration announced the U.S. government will not send the other nine James River ships to England, but instead will look to hire American yards.

That's good news to domestic scrappers, including Bay Bridge Enterprises, a Chesapeake yard that has disposed of several ghost ships in recent years.

The amended contract with Able UK still includes two carrots.

The British company will be paid $10.1 million to safely cut up and recycle the four ghost ships already there - if the yard can obtain all environmental permits and open for business as a shipbreaker.

Its latest attempt to gain such local approval in Hartlepool was rejected in October. A new vote is expected in September.

In addition, Able UK will receive two unfinished American oilers, themselves worth millions of dollars, if the four ghost ships are handled satisfactorily, said Shannon Russell, a Maritime Administration spokeswoman.

Russell said her agency has not lost faith in Able UK but has grown tired of the permitting delays, especially because dozens of other obsolete ships - each loaded with waste oil, toxic PCBs, lead and mercury - are awaiting disposal in Virginia, Texas and California.

"We have a mandate from Congress to complete this work," she said, "and need to get on with it."

Russell chastised English opponents, describing their mostly environmental arguments as "disingenuine," noting how Able UK already recycles oil rigs and platforms at the same location where the ships would be scrapped.

Nonetheless, Russell said the four-year odyssey with the British contract, which sparked international criticism and media attention, has motivated the Maritime Administration to stay at home.

"I don't believe... we'll be looking to do overseas contracts any time soon," she said.

The ghost fleet, located in the middle of the James River off Fort Eustis in Newport News, has been described by Virginia governors and environmentalists as "ticking time bombs" because of their toxic innards and thinning hulls.

One worst-case study concluded that if two ships split open in a storm, petroleum wastes could spread 50 miles on the James and would likely contaminate nearby Jamestown Island, now celebrating its 400th anniversary.

Since 2001, Congress and the Bush administration have funded scrapping contracts that have removed 55 obsolete vessels from the fleet. About 40 remain today.

President Bush has proposed spending $20 million more in 2008 on ship disposal, and by whittling the Able UK contract, an additional $7 million should be available too.

"We will continue to move ships out of Virginia, no doubt," Russell said.