Like the Mary Celeste, the old building at the top of Westland Road has lain unused and abandoned - but full of furniture and equipment - since the present day Academy pupils moved into their spanking new Townhead premises last summer.

But now, some eight months after the school was vacated, Bute's own 'Good Samaritan' has arrived on the scene - and emptied the building of many of those items to send on his latest mercy mission to the Caribbean.

David Hanschell has been sending surplus educational materials from schools all over Scotland to the hurricane-ravaged island of Grenada for two years now - and after some months of negotiation, last week he was finally ready to make use of the huge store of surplus items right on his doorstep.

Shocked by the amount of equipment which was just going to be thrown out after the academy's move, David contacted The Buteman and we went along with him last October to our old alma mater where we started school 60 years ago.

It was as if the staff and pupils had left at 4pm one afternoon and fully intended to come back the following morning.

As well as desks, chairs, black and whiteboards, we saw books, jotters and other types of classroom equipment lying abandoned. The domestic science department still had a number of cookers and kitchens which looked to be in perfect working order.

The staff room even had a brand new electric kettle along with cutlery and crockery, and we found a full set of Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopedias, which would not have looked out of place on TV's Antiques Roadshow - the list went on and on.

We went back up to the school on Thursday and met up with David as he welcomed an enormous articulated lorry driven by George Flatters of Nottingham and owned by Shanks Central Fleet.

David told us: "George will unload the container, which has been loaned by John G. Russell at Mossend and I am currently in negotiations to have people load it with as much furniture, books and other equipment as we can.

George said: "I am based in Grantham but have often been to Bute and I really enjoyed driving off the new linspan without such an awkward right turn."

David continued: "When loaded the container will go to Freightliner Ltd's container base before going on to Maersk at Southampton's Western Docks and that is where the banana boat aspect comes into play. It will then be offloaded on to a Geest ship which is returning to the Caribbean to pick up another cargo of bananas for Britain.

"Its final destination is to the Grenada Boys Government School and St George's Anglican Junior School on the island of Grenada."

David would like to thank John Mackirdy, who has offered to take the load off the island on his behalf.

Meanwhile the 1938-built art deco former Rothesay Academy Primary building, which was used by the Academy's Secondary department from 1954 to 2007, is likely to be demolished, with planning permission already granted to build houses on the site.