The Scottish Maritime Museum is ditching a long-held custom of referring to ships as "she."

The move has been prompted after signs were twice defaced.

The gender-neutral policy will be phased in with new signs this year.

The words "she" and "her" were scratched out on two separate occasions.

Director David Mann told The Scotsman: “The Scottish Maritime Museum is a charity, which works hard to preserve our country’s maritime heritage for everyone to enjoy.