The gallery displays a selection of photographs of some of the Dublin Port & Docks Board dredging fleet vessels: the Deepworker, the Sandpiper and Hopper Barge no. 8. The Sandpiper was commissioned in 1903 when a contract was placed by Dublin Port & Docks Board with the Dutch shipbuilder Smit & Zoon for the Sandpiper suction dredger. The Sandpiper was designed to maintain the depth of water in Liffey River and land reclamation, enabling ships safe passage in and out of the Port. It was active from 1904-1959.The photographs displayed show the Sandpiper during the reconstruction of Alexandra Basin in the 1920s filling in caissons, and a model built by Kelso & Co. Model Makers, Glasgow which sits in the Reception area of DPC’s head office in Port Centre.
The Deepworker joined the dredging fleet in the 1920s. Lobnitz & Co. of Renfrew (Scotland) built the bucket-dredger. Her main duty was to dredge the river channel from Butt Bridge to the Bar and Alexandra Basin. She was soon as well-known as the Sandpiper. The Steam Hopper Number Eight was built in 1931. Hopper barges had been part of the dredging fleet since the 1860s. Dredgers loaded the hopper-barges or floats, which had bottom doors. These doors allowed the dredged material to be dumped offshore in any suitable location where the tidal currents would disperse the deposited soil. The last hopper barge ordered was the Number Ten in 1955.
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