An attempt to save the world’s last sail-driven oil tanker and renovate it for an operating future is at ­crisis point as port authorities apply pressure to remove the ship from its berth in Honolulu harbour.

Efforts to transport the 1878-­built, four-masted, iron-hulled Falls of Clyde from a dock in Hono­lulu have failed in the past six months.

It has led to an impasse between the association seeking to preserve the ship and the port, which wants the pier where it is berthed as part of plans to modernise its container terminals.