French destroyer lifted in Clyde 's biggest salvage job . The debris-littered deck of the French destroyer " Maille Breze " , which is being salvaged in the biggest operation of its kind ever carried out on the Clyde . The destroyer , which sank off Greenock in 1940 after an explosion and fire , weighs 3,500 tons . Nine salvage tugs have lifted the wreck on a cradle of steel hawsers and carried her a distance of 1,950 feet . She will be beached and patched for towing to the breaker's yard . 18 August 1954