The Ben my Chree arrived back in Douglas at around 3.15pm - seven and a half hours after she set out.

She left on time at 8am for the scheduled crossing to Birkenhead, but had to turn back around two and a half hours into the trip after suffering technical problems with one of her engines.

This also meant the vessel only had one bow thrust unit and because of the nature of berthing at Birkenhead, the Master of the vessel took the decision to return to Douglas on safety grounds.

Chief Executive of the Steam Packet, Mark Woodward, says tonight was a planned maintenance session for the Ben so that will now be used to fully assess the issue and passengers will be updated later about tomorrow’s scheduled 8am Birkenhead service.

There were 240 passengers on board the Ben and 150 passengers were booked on this afternoon’s scheduled 2pm return service which was cancelled.

Passengers are being helped to transfer to other sailings and with overnight accommodation where necessary.

Mr Woodward says: 'Fortunately, technical issues that force a vessel to return to port are extremely rare and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused to our passengers.’