Queen of the Netherlands (ship)

The Queen of the Netherlands is a Dutch trailing suction hopper dredging ship constructed in 1998. The vessel has been used in high-profile salvage and dredging operations including the investigation into the Swissair Flight 111 crashcite web
url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/aircrash/about.html
title=Crash of Flight 111 (program description)
work=Nova (TV series)
publisher=PBS
accessdate=2008-04-29] and in the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project. It has been called "the world's largest floating vacuum cleaner".

The ship's dredge is convert|6|m wide and can dredge between convert|55|m and convert|115|m deep. The ship has three hopper discharge options. The ship's hopper is among the largest in the world. [http://www.boskalis.com/media/downloads/nl_NL/Vloot%20en%20Materieel/Sleephopperzuigers/Queen%20of%20the%20Netherlands.pdf] The ship has equipment to dredge almost any material; the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project will likely see it remove convert|23000000|m3 of clay, silt, sand and limestone from the bottom of Port Philip Bay. [cite news
url=http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2008/01/31/10928_news.html
title=Queen rules the bay
date=31 January 2008
publisher=Geelong Advertiser
accessdate=2008-04-29] During the Swissair Flight 111 salvage operation, a mixture of sea water, silt and aircraft pieces was pumped out of the Atlantic Ocean. The ship recovered 98% of the aircraft, with over convert|144698|kg of aircraft and cargo pieces salvaged. [ [http://www.tsb.gc.ca/en/reports/air/1998/a98h0003/01report/01factual/rep1_12_01.asp SR 111 Investigation Report-1.12.1 Wreckage Recovery ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.boskalis.com/media/downloads/nl_NL/Vloot%20en%20Materieel/Sleephopperzuigers/Queen%20of%20the%20Netherlands.pdf Royal Boskalis Westminster's Fact Sheet]
* [http://www.dredgers.nl/Dredgers/QueenNetherlands.html Bert Visser's Directory of Dredgers]