THEY ARE magnificent reminders of the days when the world's greatest ships were Clyde-built.

THEY ARE magnificent reminders of the days when the world's greatest ships were Clyde-built.

But two of the most iconic surviving vessels from Scotland's shipbuilding heyday face an uncertain future -and perhaps even the scrapyard.

The Delta Queen, one of the last of the great Mississippi paddle steamers, built in Dumbarton in 1926, has just embarked on what is almost certainly its final voyage.

Since 1968 the boat has been exempt from laws governing wooden-hulled boats but now the Delta Queen has been classed as a fire hazard.

And despite fierce campaigning - including a petition by MSPs - the vessel has not been granted an exemption beyond this month.

Meanwhile the square-rigged cargo ship, the Falls of Clyde, built in Port Glasgow in 1878, has been lying rotting for years in Honolulu Harbour in Hawaii, as previously reported by the Evening Times.

Now it has emerged it has been sold for the token sum of one dollar to a conservation group - but £30million dollars needs to be spent to restore it to its former glory.

The move has prompted fresh calls for a campaign to save the Falls of Clyde and bring it home to Scotland.

Both ships have been designated National Historic Landmarks by the American government - but fears are growing both may now be scrapped.

The Delta Queen has been a majestic sight on the Mississippi since 1926 and her passengers have included Princess Margaret and US Presidents Herbert Hoover and Harry Truman.

Her hull, first two decks and steam engines were built at the William Denny & Brothers shipyard in Dumbarton and shipped in pieces to Stockton, California, in 1926.

Since then she has plied the Mississippi River and has become an instantly-recognisable icon of the American South.

Tearful crowds lined the harbour at Cincinnati, Ohio, to bid her farewell as she left on a 10-day voyage to Memphis, Tennessee.

Linda Ross, curator of the Scottish Maritime Museum, said: "It is very sad that a Denny-built vessel will no longer be plying its trade on the Mississippi. It is a real shame.

"We are obviously interested in its future and in what will happen to it.

""I expect there will be a lot of interest in the States in preserving it and I hope they can find the money to do it.

"She is iconic - when you think about the Mississippi you think about vessels like that."

The boat's owners Majestic American Line, and grass-roots supporters, have promised the fight to save her is not over.

Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie, who organised a petition to save the vessel last year, said she was "desperately sad" to hear the news.

She said: "The tragedy is that they were desperately worried about safety and fires and it did look as if there would not be another exemption.

"The only thing we can do is to ask the authorities to think again albeit at the 11th hour and 59th minute.

"It is a Mississippi icon and if it is not scrapped then I would hope that they could preserve it as an attraction for generations to come.

"It is Clyde-built - or Clyde and River Leven-built to be exact - and it is built to last. I hope the Americans can preserve it."

The Falls of Clyde is the only remaining iron-hulled, four-masted, full-rigged ship and has been a museum piece at Honolulu Harbour since 1968.

She was built in 1878 by Russell & Company in Port Glasgow and was named the Falls of Clyde after the waterfall at New Lanark.

In her heyday the boat carried passengers between Hawaii and California but was then transformed into one of the world's few sail-driven oil tankers, carrying both oil and molasses.

She then served as a floating fuel depot in Alaska and was scheduled to be scuttled in 1963 until she was given to Honolulu's Bishop Museum and opened to the public in 1968.

But in recent years the museum - which has been accused of leaving the ship to rot - decided to sink it at sea.

That plan was thwarted by a group called the Friends of the Falls of Clyde, which was sold the vessel for a dollar but which only has £35,000 in its coffers.

The vessel will soon have to leave its dock in Honolulu but, with millions needing spent on it, the future looks uncertain.

Ciano Rebecchi, a former Provost of Inverclyde, said he hoped the vessel could be saved and possibly brought back to the Clyde.

He said: "What's to stop people paying £1 to have their names on a list to save this boat and even bringing it back here.

"We have the oldest dry dock in the world at the former Scott's shipyard. Could it be put in there? Could it be used further up at Port Glasgow?

"There is nothing to stop us doing that. We should be taking some pride in the tradesmanship and the craftsmanship that was once in this area."

He said he had been kept up-to-date with the fate of the Falls of Clyde through contacts in the United States.