These pictures show the Ben-my-Chree in a Cornish dry dock awaiting repairs to a damaged propeller.

The Ben sailed to Falmouth for repairs on Tuesday and will be out of service for at least a week.

She was damaged as she entered Heysham harbour on Thursday night last week.

It’s suspected that silt is responsible for the damage.

But the exact cause won’t be confirmed until a full assessment is made while the vessel is out of the water at the A&P shipyard.

A team of engineers and divers inspected the Ben as soon as it became clear that she had sustained damage while entering Heysham harbour.

But the repairs are such that they cannot be done while the ship is afloat.

A&P’s Falmouth facility is the largest ship-repair complex in the UK.

It has three large graving docks and extensive deepwater berthing for vessels up to 100,000 tonnes.

The Ben is currently expected to return to scheduled service next Friday (September 11) and, in the meantime, the Steam Packet has introduced a revised timetable.

Manannan is operating the daily Heysham sailings, while the MV Arrow continues to provide a daily freight service.

Meanwhile, the Steam Packet has released figures showing how ferry travel was hit during the Covid crisis.

It revealed that it carried about 8,000 passengers between April and August compared to 384,000 in same period last year.