One of the dredgers operated by the Belgian company Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering NV (DEME) that was founded in 1991 with the merger of 3 Belgian companies – Baggerwerken Decloedt & Zoon, Ackermans & van Haaren and Société Générale de Dragage is the 2005 built Cutter Suction Dredger (CSD) D’ARTAGNAN.
She was built in the Netherlands by IHC Dredgers in 2005 and is a self propelled 123.8 metre long cutter suction dredger with 25.2 metre beam and draught of 8.2 metres. Her dredging depth is 35 metres with suction pipe diameter of 1 metre. She’s the world’s heaviest self-propelled and ocean-going rock breaker with 28,200 kW power that was built for DEME’s French subsidiary Société de Dragage International (SDI).
She was seen at Malta several times starting with her maiden call a year later after she was built calling at Malta Shipyards Dock 6 on 11th January, 2006.
3 years later she was seen berthed at Malta Freeport Terminal 1 back to 17th February, 2009.
Then 9 years later she was seen uplifting bunkers at Bunkering Area 1, back to 14th August 2018 by tanker VEMAOIL XI
2 years later on Sunday 20th September, 2020 around 0856 hrs she passed by 31.3 nautical miles NNW off Malta underway to Astakos, Greece.
2 years later she called at Palumbo Malta Shipyards –
And this year in 2023 we saw her on a 12 hour port call during November 2023 of which she was berthed at Pinto 1 and 2 wharves, part of Valletta Cruise Port (VCP). She entered Valletta back to Sunday 26th at 1952 hrs coming from Abu Qir, Egypt and left on Monday 27th at 0625 hrs bound to La Pallice, France.
Valletta Cruise Port – For more information about Valletta Cruise Port kindly visit their website – www.vallettacruiseport.com
