History

The cradle of the cutter suction dredgers stood in the United States. In 1884 a cutter suction dredger was

used in the port of Oakland, California. This dredger had a cylindrical cutter head and was used to dredge

layers of sandstone. It had a pipeline of 500 mm diameter and a pump with an impeller of 1.8 m. The

disadvantage of this design was that the suction mouth was frequently blocked. At the end of the 19th

century and beginning of the 20th century there was a major development in suction dredgers.

For example, in the fall of 1893 the cutter suction dredger “RAM” was built by the Bucyrus Steam Shovel

and dredged company for use on the lower Mississippi river. This dredger was already equipped with an

rotating cutter head.

The cutter suction dredger became the workhorse of the dredging industry in America, as did the bucket

dredger in Europe at that time.