The catastrophic collapse of the Mayflower Corporation has been blamed on the revolutionary turbine installation vessel Mayflower Resolution a ship that captivated the port two months ago when she jacked up off the seabed at the docks. Several local companies are understood to be owed money by Mayflower.

Initially the ship was expected to cost £20m but nine months late on delivery from a Chinese shipyard and over-budget the ship is reported to have cost the company £40m.

Nick Dargan, Deloitte's administrator hopes to raise more than £20m from the sale of the vessel - with bids having to be in by tomorrow (Friday). Already interest has been shown by 44 separate buyers. Forty of the 60 staff of Mayflower Energy, the subsidiary that owned the ship lost their jobs with the collapse of Mayflower, the bus and coach company that invested in the energy market.

Mayflower had debts of £196m and analysts believe that the £40m ship caused the collapse of the company. One city analyst said "Mayflower should not have been risking so much capital on technology that was outside its core expertise. The ship was a classic example of why it all went wrong"

Mayflower Energy recognised the importance of providing cost effective installation of wind turbines if wind energy is to be profitable and designed their futuristic ship accordingly. The company was considering building a second vessel to support the business. Mayflower Resolution is berthed at Middlesbrough awaiting the outcome of the bidding process that will see the ship in different ownership.