Debmarine vessel fitting out in Cape Town
INWARD from the north last Saturday was Debmarine Namibia’s new diamond recovery vessel, Benguela Gem. The 177m vessel was completed in the middle of last month by Damen Shipyards in Mangalia, Romania, a sister yard to the local Damen shipyard adjacent to the Elliott Basin.
Awaiting her arrival at L Berth were large structures of top-hamper, some of which had been made at 3C Metal Belmet’s facilities in Walvis Bay and shipped to Cape Town aboard special project vessels. Other structures had been manufactured by CINCO Engineering, a local division of 3C Metal Belmet.
I understand that about 1 700 tons of structural steel, mechanical components, piping and plate structures have been processed and assembled at the berth to be installed aboard the vessel. These make up much of her diamond recovery machinery. To lift the modular sections and other equipment aboard, heavylift cranes have been hired.
This outfitting process is a huge, complex and protracted operation, much of which will be done at L Berth, while other work will be done in Sturrock Drydock. Throughout the project, numerous other local contractors will be involved, including Hesper Engineering who will provide mechanical support when the vessel drydocks for about 10 days in November. Once the outfitting has been completed in the first half of next year, the highly sophisticated and specialised vessel – the largest of her class in the world – will use sub-sea crawling extraction techniques to retrieve seabed diamondiferous gravels in Namibian waters for processing and sorting on board.
Benguela Gem is the second new, large diamond recovery vessel to be outfitted in recent years, the first being the Norwegian-built SS Nujoma that was completed here a few years ago. Earlier, several other ships were also converted for the west coast diamond mining industry, and these vessels undergo their routine refits in Cape Town, most using Sturrock Drydock for the purpose.
The good news is that South
African engineering companies and a range of other contractors – from hi-tech electronic engineers, welders and crane hire companies to carpet fitters and crockery suppliers – play important roles in these enormous projects. In the process, thousands of people – many in upstream suppliers – are employed. Other spin-offs include the extensive experience gained by local artisans while working on such projects, and of course, significant revenue accrues to the harbour authorities from port dues, tug and pilotage operations.
For years, the marine diamond industry has been a large client of wider engineering endeavours in Cape Town. During earlier operations by Marine Diamond Corporation, led by the flamboyant American Sam Collins, several coasters, military landing craft and tugs were converted for diamond operations by Globe Engineering whose yard was situated on the eastern wall of the Yacht Basin.
Among the diamond recovery vessels – most not known for their pleasing lines – was Diamantkus that began operations off the west coast in 1963. The largest seagoing diamond recovery vessel at the time, she had been the American military landing craft APB 45 prior to her conversion by Globe Engineering to operate for Marine Diamond Corporation. She had five sea anchors, accommodation for 200 crewmembers who included artisans to maintain and operate the array of machinery aboard that had been designed to handle 300 tons of seabed gravel an hour, far more than other similar vessels of the time.
Like several other vessels operating close inshore and amid heavy swell, she was nearly lost when she dragged her anchors, and drifted rapidly towards the beach. With Diamantkus bumping on the sand, and drawing on all his seamanship experience, the master of the tug Collinsea – also owned by Marine Diamond Corporation – managed to get his vessel close to the diamond ship, put up a towing line despite the heavy sea, and then slowly pulled her toward deeper water.
Although she was producing record figures in terms of carats, Diamantkus was extremely expensive to operate, and several design faults in her hull structure and production equipment had been exposed. In 1966, she was withdrawn and later, was the target of a military exercise in Table Bay.
Gradually, the South African mining giant, De Beers, gained an increasing shareholding in Marine Diamond Corporation. In view of the growing demand for gem diamonds, De Beers took over the business in 1965. Almost immediately, other more sophisticated vessels replaced some of those strangely profiled diamond dredgers that previously had been central to the operations. The focus shifted to Namibia, the company was restructured and Debmarine emerged as the vessel-operating company of the group.
Although the diamond vessels use much valuable time in Sturrock Drydock, Debmarine should be encouraged to retain its important ties to Cape Town’s shiprepair sector. The shortage of drydock space – meaning that millions of dollars’ worth of other business has to be turned away – can be resolved by building another, larger drydock here, a major quest of this column over several years. Some provincial government folks have been briefed on this, but only a ja-well-thanks response has been forthcoming.
Singaporean enterprises would grab the opportunity – but then they have loads of oomph!