| From Bill Carey posted (British Columbia Nautical History Facebook Group 06/11/2016) clipped from "West Coast Ferries" forum 2008 by member name "landlocked" "That is the ex Federal Department of Public Works "Dredge 322". In the mid 80's, the Feds divested themselves of dredging work by selling off their equipment and replacing with contractors. In the old days you would have seen the self propelled ship "Fort Langley", the dredge 322, and I believe their other dredge "King Edward" out in the river 'doing their thing' Now you will see the "Fraser Titan" and the "Sceptre Fraser" and "Sceptre Columbia" doing what they used to do, with some twists. Now, in addition to dumping at sea, the Fraser Titan will dump next to the Columbia or Fraser and they will in turn pick up the sand dumped and send it ashore in pipelines. The 322, if I get my facts straight, was a small auger style suction dredge. Her system was between 12" and 16". This vessel has an auger on the bow that this vessellowers down and it rotates as well as having suction from the main pumps. The sand/water goes through the main pumps and is pumped out the stern, through pipes which pump the 'slurry' ashore. this vessel was very small compared tot the Sceptre rigs which had 30" and 36" pumps respecitvely. When the 322 went up for sale Miller Contracting were actively in the marine business, with boats, clamsell derricks, and the like. They purchased her from Crown Assets simply so their competitors couldn't. Whether they intended to retrofit her was never determined, so this vesselhas just sat, first up the river at Sapperton, now at their own facility in Delta. It doesn't look like they intend to do anything with her, at least not that they are making any progress with a refit. While this vesseldoes have what appears to be a wheelhouse, it is not. That is the control room. From there, the operators can view the main auger and they control her positioning. This vessel positions herself by having two forward anchors out and stern 'spuds' which drop into the ground. If they want to move, they can slew themselves by pulling in the direction of one anchor or the other. It's a very neat process actually." |
