Seal Sands now enjoying the sun anchored off Istanbul...eta Odessa still 19th February.

geoff

Looks as if she has moved into the Black Sea,at last....

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/de ... AL%20SANDS

geoff

Arrived Mariupol on 1st July
She is the first of three vessels to under take dredging there for Technical Bureau Azimut LLC for Ukrainian Seaports Authority.
Two other vessels, GIGANTE I (GIGANTE ?) and JOSE DUARTE will arrive in the next few weeks.
By the end of the project 1.98 cubic metres of spoil will be removed, 1.87 cubic metres from the port approaches

https://shipsmonthly.com/news/newly-bui ... ese-proud/

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/pho ... id=2876299

Regards
Graham

Look in at her every day but didn't know about the other vessels and workload....thanks.

geoff

Yours for 1.1m euro's.
Currently in the Black Sea area
Regards
Graham

Seal Sands has been moored near Mykolaiv (Ukrain) since the start of the currant conflict. Goodness knows what sort of condition she is in now.

She was not with the TCC when I was there however the previous Priestman Grab was, never went aboard her so I know very little about the previous vessel as there is nothing in my little black book, usually you can tell just by looking at a vessel in which country she was built just by certain features that are common, shape of the Bridge, type of and positioning of radio aerials etc, looking at the 'Seal Sands' I would never have guessed she was British built, her Bridge has the looks of a Turkish design with an after thought construction stuck on top, Wheelhouse? because of the Crane and poor forward vision.
I wonder if the initial design was just for a powered Hopper without the Priestman fitted?
Until her present predicament she has done well and a credit to her British Builders.

I was working on No 1 dredger when Seal Sands first arrived. Her first skipper was formerly a mate on a bucket dredger and I think he only had limited experience with powered craft. I think it was the first time he was bringing her alongside at the craft depot when something went wrong. I recall seeing her going full astern dragging both of her anchors behind her and spinning around in mid stream. Fortunately they regained control and no harm was done other than embarrassing the crew in front of quite a large audience..

G.M. Taximan, sounds like her Main Engine was/is Bridge Controlled, ( presume a lot of clapping was involved after the incident occurred:D), unfortunately Bridge Control is not the panacea that " Ships Managements " think it is as failures can and do occur ( just look at some of the Ships crashing on Utube ) Something I have experience of.
I enjoyed my time on No1, no crashing squealing and banging of the Buckets going over the Top Tumbler being a Suction Dredger she was relatively quiet along with her Triple Expansion Engines of which they were four, two propulsion, one Suction Pump and one cutting which was apparently mounted on her Suction ladder Aft along with the shafting to a Cutter mounted above the Suction Head. I write apparently it had been removed before I was aboard.
No1 being an unusual "Boilers in the Bow" vessel the worry was as you are aware the Fireman who ran the Stokehold (two Boilers) singlehanded, fortunately the Deck Crew kept an eye on him as he was not a young chap when I was aboard. She carried a Chief Eng, a Second (Gerry ?) and an Engineman who ran the fully enclosed Crankcase Triple Expansion Suction Pump Engine. One of my memories was a large Stone Jar water purifier in the "Officers Mess" if you wanted drinking water something I usually saw on Foreign going Vessels.

My main reason for venturing forth 50 YEARS AGO TODAY was to see the brand new SEAL SANDS berthed at the Craft Depot - 17 August 1973:
The additional bonus was that this visit also provided me with my first sighting of the 1930-built JEROEN (qv) berthed nearby.

Ron M