THE OWNERS of a classic tug built in Bowling in 1955 have been ordered to pay the Ministry of Defence more than £400,000 after losing a legal challenge at Scotland’s highest civil court.

Stuart White,72, and David Symon, 66, demanded £150,000 from the MoD because they alleged the ministry acted negligently when dealing with their vessel, the Golden Cross, in May 2013, when it became detached from an MoD buoy in Loch Goil following a storm and started to sink.

Approximately 1.5 tonnes of oil was spilled which then had to be cleaned up before it was taken away to be broken up in December 2013.

The two men wanted compensation from the MoD saying that it hadn’t done enough to ensure the boat’s safety and took the matter to the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

Lawyers for the Ministry of Defence disagreed, stating that if they didn’t take any action, the boat could have stopped Royal Navy submarines from accessing the waters.

However, in a ruling issued on Friday, judge Lady Wise ruled in favour of the Ministry of Defence, saying it acted responsibly.

Lady Wise also ordered Mr White and Mr Symon to pay the MoD £441,511.60 - the cost of the clean up operation.

The tug had been moored opposite the Coulport naval base when the storm struck. It was then moved to an MoD buoy on Loch Goil where she remained for 10 days.

However, the owners claimed MoD staff didn’t enter the tug to make checks and said that when it developed a list, the MoD was only made aware of the threat of its sinking by a fisherman.

The owners claimed that officials didn’t do anything to reduce water levels which would have enabled the vessel to taken to a pier for repair.

In the judgement, Lady Wise wrote that Ian White, the Deputy Queen’s Harbourmaster, the official responsible for overseeing the attempts to salvage the boat, didn’t act negligently.

She wrote: “I conclude that the Deputy Queen’s Harbourmaster acted reasonably at all times on May 3 and May 4 2013.

“In making a tentative plan but not ruling out any other option until he had visited the vessel on May 4 and seen the extent of the contaminated water inside the engine room, he left a final decision to beach the vessel until he had assessed personally that nothing else was possible."