Trailing suction hopper dredger in Port Victoria |09 August 2013

‘Charles Darwin’, a trailing suction hopper dredger owned by the Jan de Nul Group, is currently in Port Victoria where she will be laying over for an indefinite period of time.

The Ministry of Land Use and Housing and the Seychelles Ports Authority announced this yesterday, saying that the vessel was sailing from Belgium to the Indonesian Port of Jakarta where she was due to execute a dredging contract for a reclamation project.  

While on her way the contractor was informed that the works had been temporarily suspended and thus ordered the vessel to call at Port Victoria and lay over pending either the resumption of the contract or other assignments elsewhere.

The ‘Charles Darwin’, one of the newest dredgers in the Jan de Nul fleet with a length of 183 metres, a dead weight of 54,140 tonnes, a hopper capacity of 30,500 cubic metres and a cruising speed of 16 knots, can dredge up to a maximum depth of 93.5 metres.

She is nonetheless a smaller vessel compared to the ‘Cristóbal Colón’ with a hopper capacity of 46,000 cubic metres, which did some work in Seychelles in November 2011.

The Ministry of Land Use and Housing has had discussions with Jan De Nul on the possibility of the dredger undertaking some dredging works while in Seychelles waters.  Given that any works undertaken in Seychelles would be free of mobilisation and de-mobilisation costs, which in any dredging works are usually quite substantial, government stands to benefit from any works which may be undertaken.

The dredger is also transporting approximately 14,000 cubic metres of sand dredged from the North Sea, which is presently being used as ship’s ballast while also destined for sale to the Indonesia client.

Jan de Nul has kindly agreed to donate its cargo of sand to the Seychelles government.  Following various laboratory tests carried on samples of the sand in an EU certified laboratory, it has been confirmed that the sand is free of any soil pollutants and live organisms.

The Ministry of Environment and Energy on its part has authorised the discharge of the sand into a controlled and confined disposal area on the Ile du Port sand stockpile subject to certain specific conditions.