A NOVEL STEAM DREDGE.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 969, 10 May 1872, Page 3

A NOVEL STEAM DREDGE.

The following description of a marine novelty, which might by beneficially introduced on many rivers in New Zealand, is taken from the Glasgow ' Weekly Mail:' —A new iron steam vessel, of peculiar design and novel arrangement, has been launched. It is named the Canada, and is the property of the Canadian Government, and is the first vessel of this description ever launched. It cornbices in itself the respective properties of a powerful dredger, a steam hopper barge, and a screw tug steamer. It is intended to keep the harbors and rivers of North America free of silting and obstructions at a moderate expense, as it has in one bottom all the properties of the more expensive dredge fleet usual in extensive operations, and by its use ordinary rivers and harbors can be deepened and improved at much less expense than is cast away with dredgers, barges, and tug steamers, with their crews and necessary detention. The mode of working is as follows: —The vessel .propels itself to the place requiring dredging, it is then moored by the steam winches to the guide buoys at both bows and quarter ; the dredging girder is then lowered to the bottom by steam; the machinery connected therewith is then set in motion and draws a range of steel mounted buckets, which cut, lift, and deposit into the vessel one hopper containing about two hundred tons of soil. The vessel being now loaded, the girder is raised flush with the deck, the moorings are disconnected from the buoys, and the vessel assumes the the properties of a screw steamer. Another connection of the machinery is then put into gear, driving the propeller. The pilot takes his station at the rudder, the captain takes his station on the bridge, and the dredging crew convert themselvea into sailors, and

the vessel steams* away to deep sea water, say from ten to twenty miles, at a Bpeed of eight knots an hour, when, by another arrangement of the steam machinery, the bottom hopper door opens, and the two hundred tons of cargo is in a moment dropped in thirty or forty fathoms deep of water. The doors are then closed, and the steamer returns for another cargo, and becomes again a dredger, the process being repeated. This vessel is consequently well suited for exposed localities, and is. capable of lifting, conveying, and depositing five hund, ed to one thousand tons of soil per day, and by its use, in limited operations, the cost of dredging is greatly reduced. There are many commercial seaports and rivers which can be deepened by this Bystem, but their trade and prospects would not warrant the heavy expenditure of an entire dredge fleet. "We understand Messrs Simons have patented the arrangements of this vessel, and that after a trial on the Clyde, it will shortly steam itself across the Atlantic to its destination.