Hundreds of cruise passengers who expected to be heading for the winter sun of the Canary Islands will instead find themselves spending the night in Southampton hotels.

Travel plans for hundreds of passengers have been thrown into chaos after trouble developed with one of the engines and a propeller on the 28,492-ton Black Watch as she headed for Southampton on Tuesday.

The Fred Olsen Cruise Lines vessel was due to arrive at the city's Western Docks early this morning and then leave again tonight but now it is not expected in port until tomorrow at 5.30am.

Black Watch was forced to slow down using just three of its four engines as the ship's master, Captain Ager Danielsen, broke the news of the 24-hour delay to the passengers as the vessel was making her way through the Bay of Biscay.

At the cruise line's Ipswich headquarters teams of staff spent yesterday trying to contact as many passengers, due to join the ship in Southampton, as possible to tell them that their cruise had been postponed.

Nigel Lingard, a director of the cruise line, said: "The problem is that many of our guests come from all over the country and some had already left home and so we will have to break the news to them once they arrive in Southampton.

"We are planning to put people up in hotels in Southampton but there seems to be a shortage of rooms.

He added: "At this stage there are no plans to cancel the ship's next voyage but the ship is not expected to sail again until Saturday morning.

"As a result of the later departure Black Watch will miss calls at Morocco and Lanzarote during the cruise and we have offered compensation to our passengers.''

Black Watch will dock at the Mayflower Terminal but then move to 104 berth to make way for cruise ship Aurora on Saturday.