A FOURTH Ghost Ship has docked in the North-East after poor conditions had kept it several miles off shore.

The Compass Island joined three other US vessels at the Able UK yard, near Hartlepool, where they will spend the next few months while their future is debated.

The ship arrived off the coast last Thursday, having made the 4,000 mile trip across the Atlantic, but bad light, the wrong tides and poor weather had kept it out of the Tees estuary.

An Able UK spokeswoman said last night: ''It has now moored and it is fine.''

Teesside protest group Impact has refuted Government claims that most of the cancer- linked PCB contaminated material on board the ships would be incinerated.

The group said it would be dumped at the Seaton Meadow landfill site - a fact confirmed by Able.

Able said the landfill site had an excellent safety record and was an acceptable method of disposal.

Liberal Democrats in Hartlepool have attacked the use of landfill for disposing of toxic waste and said they are concerned about proximity to urban areas.

The arrival of the first two ships, the Caloosahatchee and Canisteo, last month, met with protests by groups that said the rusting US fleet was an environmental hazard.

Green campaigners said the US should deal with its own waste and said the ships were heavily contaminated with asbestos and highly dangerous PCB chemicals.

The third ship, the Canopus, arrived without any protests as campaigners said their feelings were already known.

They are now waiting for the outcome of legal challenges, scheduled for the High Court this month, about the future of the ships

Able UK won a contract to dismantle and recycle 13 vessels from the outdated US fleet, which was moored in the James River in Virginia.

* To read more about the Ghost Ships log on to www.ghostships.co.uk