Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 1981)

Twin City Yard Lays Keel

For Seagoing Split-Hull Dredge

Twin City Shipyard, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., recently laid the keel far a seagoing dredge that will join the fleet of Gulf Coast Trailing

Company, Kenner, La., late this year. The new dredge—to be launched under the name

Mermentau—is a sister dredge of the Atch- afalaya, launched last, year for Gulf Coast

Trailing, and which is presently in service in East Coast waters.

Ronald A. Rossway, vice president of Twin

City Shipyard, said the new vessel, 196 feet 10 inches long and 40 feet 8 inches wide, will feature both a hinged split-hull for the rapid dumping of dredged spoils, and hopper doors for pumping dredged spoils ashore. Propul- sion is by deck-mounted twin 850-hp en- gines with propellers rotatable 360 degrees to provide high maneuverability.

The shallow-draft dredge, with a maxi- mum working draft of 14 feet 7 inches, will

TWIN CITY SHIPYARD.INC.

KEEL LAYING FOR

SPLIT HOPPER DREDGE MERMENTAU'

Present for the keel-laying ceremony for the 197-foot- long Mermentau at Twin City Shipyard, Inc. were (L to R) John C. Balogh, senior surveyor, American

Bureau of Shipping, Duluth, Minn.; Chris Th. Spaanen- burg, technical manager for Gulf Coast Trailing Co.,

Kenner, La.; John Buursema, president of Twin City

Shipyard, St. Paul, and Ronald A. Rossway, vice pres- ident of Twin City Shipyard.

Those are two major advantages to consider about the

Levco 360° 5-ton revolving crane. In addition, it's easy to ser- vice by your own mechanics and most parts are galvanized or inorganic zinc coated for complete protection against corrosion.

The Levco crane is also available with several options: 2 air powered models (manual or power swing) and 2 hydraulic models (diesel or electric). And although the standard boom is 30', booms up to 50' can be ordered.

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Write 240 on Reader Service Card 44 be used for diverse dredging operations in shallow rivers or for large coastal projects.

The hinged deckhouse has messing and berthing facilities for 16 men.

The Mermentau will be fitted with two dragarms, or trailing suction pipes, mounted on each side of the ship's forward section, and capable of dredging to depths of 65 feet.

Its hopper, occupying most of the midship area, will have a capacity of about 1,300 cubic yards of dredged material.

Upon arrival at the disposal area, the hinged hull will open hydraulically into two halves and dredged material will fall through the gap thus created. If conditions require, as in beach reclamation projects, the dredge pump may be used to remove material from the hopper and pump it ashore. This oper- ation is particularly useful when environ- mental considerations preclude the use of bottom dumping, Mr. Rossway said.

First Large-Scale Floating

Seawater Desalination Plant

Launched At Nordseewerke

The first large-scale, floating seawater desalination plant built in Germany (shown above) was launched recently at Thyssen

Nordseewerke GmbH, Emden. Mrs. Traute

Matthofer, wife of the German Federal Min- ister of Finance, named the floating plant

Meda in the presence of her husband and numerous honorary guests.

The Meda is a new joint development by

INCON Anlagentechnik GmbH, Homburg/

Saar, and Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH, which was supported by the German Fed- eral Minister for Research and Technology.

The seawater desalination plant is de- signed for a daily output of about 5,000 tons of fresh water. This production is arrived at by a new combination of processes, i.e., vapor compression (VC), vertical tub flow evaporation (VTFE), and multistage flash evaporation (MSF), which is said to achieve a hitherto unequalled economy of operation.

The plant is mounted on a nonpropelled barge of 67 meters in length, 16 meters in breadth, and 4.5 meters in depth, on which the deckhouse for the auxiliaries, controls, workshops, labs, and living quarters is ar- ranged as well. The barge was built accord- ing to the rules and regulations of German- ischer Lloyd, who also supervised the con- struction.

After start-up and testing of the plant, it is intended to operate Meda as a dem- onstration unit in the Near East by INCON

Anlagentechnik and Thyssen Nordseewerke.

The two companies involved have taken cru- cial steps toward greater production program extension and diversification by implement- ing this new seawater desalination plant.

Maritime Reporter/Engineering News

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