Sunset over the sea, photographed from the dredging vessel KAISHUU with yellow cranes, pipes and technical superstructures on deck.
Under water

With the dredger from Hamburg to the E3 buoy

The KAISHUU dredger doesn’t usually dock. The large hopper dredger is in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, working to permanently remove excess sediment from the Port of Hamburg. We spent a day with it, accompanied by our film crew.

The dredging vessel KAISHUU is moored on the Elbe, with a clearly visible bridge, striking superstructure and several yellow crane arms on deck. The hull is grey with red underwater paint, in the background a bank with trees and industrial facilities of the port of Hamburg can be seen.
The trailing suction hopper dredger KAISHUU mooring at Mönckebergkai. Because it is still empty, it protrudes high out of the water.
A yellow loading basket is lifted onto the quay from the dredger KAISHUU with the help of a crane. Several people in high-visibility waistcoats stand at the ship's railing, while another person wearing a hard hat and rucksack walks along the harbour area. Numerous container cranes of the Port of Hamburg can be seen in the background.
Two of us are hoisted safely on board with the loading basket.

At 6.30 a.m. on the dot, the dredging vessel KAISHUU turns from the outer harbour into Ellerholzhafen and goes alongside at Mönckebergkai. We are hoisted on board with a cage and off we go again. We barely have time for the safety briefing before we are already in the Köhlbrand, our dredging area today. There we watch as the two gigantic suction pipes are lowered outboard. At a depth of 15 metres, the two suction heads, which are a good five metres wide, are supposed to remove freshly deposited mud so that the large ships can once again call at our port and their berths unhindered.

Interior view of a machine room with a large pipe system and a massive centrifugal pump. The system is surrounded by pipes, valves and steel girders. Platforms and an "Exit" sign can be seen in the background.
One of the two main pumps with a diameter of over 3 metres.
View into the hold of a dredger, where thick, grey mud is being churned up. Several massive pipes and chains protrude into the sediment from above, while a row of nozzles is visible on the rear wall.
The hold quickly fills with a viscous mixture of mud and water.
Two people sit at a steering position on the bridge of the dredger KAISHUU and look at several monitors with technical displays. The cargo hold and the deck of the dredger with pipes and yellow cranes can be seen through the windows, with the port of Hamburg with container gantry cranes and the Köhlbrand Bridge behind them.
The dredging process is precisely controlled on the bridge.
View from the dredger KAISHUU onto the deck and hold of the dredger. In the background, the Süderelbe with HHLA's Altenwerder container terminal and the Hansaport bulk terminal in Sandauhafen harbour.
View across the cargo hold to the Altenwerder container terminal and the Hansaport bulk terminal.

The pumps start up, twice with 6,000 hp and a suction capacity of around four cubic metres per second, and a mixture of mud and water pours thunderously into the 16,500 cubic metre hold (hopper) of the dredging vessel. This corresponds to around 650 lorry loads, a vehicle chain of over 8 kilometres. The loading process takes exactly 71 minutes and 8,756 tonnes of Elbe sediment are then on board. The electronic hopper monitoring system records all the data and transmits it to our colleagues at the HPA in real time. As the suction heads lift again, we are already leaving the Köhlbrand and heading for what is probably the most famous relocation site in the North Sea.

Research into the E3 tonne

Two people on a work boat take a sediment sample from the Elbe. They are wearing orange-coloured protective clothing and helmets. A third person is filming the scene with a professional camera. Modern buildings and a quay wall of the Port of Hamburg can be seen in the background.
The sediments are already being analysed in detail in Hamburg. A film team accompanied us.
Three men in protective clothing and helmets stand on the deck of a research vessel and use a shovel to remove a wet sediment sample from a net onto the floor. The open sea near Helgoland can be seen in the background.
Around the E3 buoy in the North Sea, the effects of silt transport are tested at over 150 points every year.

The relocation site Tonne E3 is not only the best known, it is also by far the best investigated. Worldwide. A whole team of scientists takes many hundreds of samples around the E3 buoy and on the coasts every year. They ensure that there are no adverse effects on the ecosystem. The sediments in Hamburg are also analysed. They can only be dredged and released into the North Sea if they are clean enough.

Large blue marine diesel engine in the engine room of the KAISHUU, flanked by a walk-on platform. A technician wearing a helmet and high-visibility clothing moves along the narrow corridor alongside the engine.
One of the KAISHUU's two main engines. They also run on climate-neutral biofuel.
View of a workbench in an engine room on board the KAISHUU. Various tools such as spanners, saws and pliers are hanging on the wall. A green board and a yellow tool holder hang on the left.
Tools and spare parts on board often save repairs in a shipyard.

The journey to the west transfer area at buoy E3 takes seven hours and four minutes. Plenty of time for the crew to carry out maintenance work and for us to get to know the specialised ship. 157 metres long, 23 metres wide, 11 metres draught, fully loaded, as it is now, the KAISHUU sails under the Luxembourg flag for the company Jan de Nul. Two engines with a combined output of 33,000 hp drive four 360° swivelling propellers when required, allowing the ship to turn on the spot. Good manoeuvrability is crucial in narrow harbour basins. They also drive the two huge main pumps. Masses of spare parts and tools are stored in the bowels of the hull and also on deck, as every stop in a shipyard means downtime and therefore loss.

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Everyday life on the dredger

A chef in a white jacket prepares food in a professional kitchen while a cameraman films him with a large video camera.
Fresh food is always cooked in the galley.
A compact fitness room with various training equipment, including a treadmill, a cross trainer, a rowing machine, a multifunctional strength station and a weight bench with a set of dumbbells. A punching bag and two round portholes are visible in the background.
There is also a fitness room for the team.

36 crew members share all the work in two shifts. With the exception of the cook and captain, all positions are filled twice. The crew spends six weeks on board at a time, after which they are replaced. "The ship is my second home," says Rowen, the second officer from the Netherlands. It's a good thing that not only is the food on board excellent, but the crew's wellbeing is also taken care of in other ways. There is a TV room, games room and fitness room, even a bar and everyone has their own cabin with a sea view. In general, the atmosphere and sense of community on board are remarkably good; the experienced Captain John certainly plays a large part in this.

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View from the deck of the dredging vessel KAISHUU with numerous pipelines, machines and yellow cranes to another dredging vessel on the Elbe. On the horizon, a green riverbank landscape, the Wedel thermal power station and a radar tower can be seen. The sky is cloudy.
A dredging vessel working for the Federal Waterways Administration near Wedel.
View from the KAISHUU of a container ship travelling up the Elbe towards Hamburg. The foreground shows technical equipment and pipework on the ship. The sky is slightly overcast, the sun is shining through the clouds.
Mud out, containers in.

As the dredger travels along the Elbe to its mouth in the North Sea we observe the slow change in the landscape and the multitude of different ships we encounter. Among them are two other hopper dredgers working for the Federal Waterways Administration. The gas-powered dredger VOX ARIANE and the dredger MEUSE RIVER, because excess sediment must also be constantly removed between Hamburg and the mouth of the Elbe to ensure that Germany's most important waterway always remains navigable.

Wide-angle shot across the open sea with a view of the island of Heligoland on the horizon, with the red cliffs and a tall transmission mast. The dune can be seen to the right of Heligoland.
At last we are at buoy E3. Heligoland can be seen in the distance.

In the early afternoon, the journey slows down as we approach our destination. The actual buoy E3, the navigation mark, can only be recognised with binoculars. Heligoland lies around 15 kilometres ahead, the mainland behind us just a strip on the horizon. The dredger, which still looked like a giant in the harbour, seems to be just a nutshell here.</p

View of the deck of the dredging vessel KAISHUU with numerous large pipes, valves and railings. A person in high-visibility clothing and helmet walks along a narrow catwalk through the plant.
When the floor flaps open, it only takes a few minutes for the cargo space to be empty again. The unloading process is also closely monitored and documented.

Then the bottom flaps open and our valuable cargo pours out onto the transfer area at a depth of over 25 metres, while the ship rises a good five metres out of the water. The cargo hold and the nozzles and pipes are rinsed with seawater to ensure that nothing gets blocked and we head back towards Hamburg, with a good eight hours' journey ahead of us.</p

Sea mark in the water with green and black markings in the foreground; in the background the coastal landscape of the island of Neuwerk with buildings, a red and white radio tower and the historic lighthouse, in front of it mudflats and resting birds
Past the island of Neuwerk.
View from the dredger KAISHUU of a small pilot boat with an orange roof sailing alongside the ship on the Elbe. The coastline can be seen in the background under a cloudy sky at sunset.
One of several pilot changes during the long journey.

On the return journey, it becomes clear just how long the journey really is. The day shift crew retreats, the night shift takes over, it gets even quieter on the bridge and also on deck, as most of the maintenance work is carried out during the day. After a spectacular sunset at Brunsbüttel, it gets dark.

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Sunset (yes, it really was that colourful). New: OLD text: The illuminated dredger KAISHUU at dusk with a view over the deck with technical equipment and pipework. In the background you can see the calm water and a narrow strip of pink-purple sunset on the horizon.
Sunset (yes, it really was that colourful).
Scene taken at night with two large ships on a narrow waterway. On the left of the picture is the heavily illuminated dredging vessel KAISHUU with numerous technical superstructures. On the right, a huge container ship labelled "HMM" passes by, loaded with many containers.
Back in Hamburg, we pass another container giant at night.

Shortly after midnight, we reach Mönckebergkai again and leave the ship, laden with images and impressions of a working world without which the Port of Hamburg, like most ports worldwide, could not exist, without which trade and our prosperity would not be possible. By the end of the year, the dredger KAISHUU will have relocated up to two million tonnes of surplus sediment from Hamburg to the North Sea, supported at times by a second smaller dredger. It will have made the journey to buoy E3 around 260 times. Perhaps one day it will be possible to travel less far and less often. But that's another story.

The film is now available on our Port is what we do YouTube channel!

FAQ on the transport of sediments by dredger to the E3 bin

The most important questions and answers at a glance.

 

The E3 buoy is a sea mark of the Elbe buoyage and gives its name to the best-known and best-studied relocation site in the world, where sediments from the port of Hamburg are unloaded. It is located around 6.5 nautical miles south-east of Helgoland in the North Sea. The E3 buoy plays a central role in safe and environmentally friendly sediment management.

 

 

A dredging vessel such as the hopper dredger KAISHUU has the task of removing excess sediment from the port of Hamburg so that the large ships have sufficient water depths. To do this, two large suction pipes are lowered to pick up freshly deposited mud at a depth of around 15 metres. The hold can hold up to 16,500 cubic metres of mud-water mixture, which corresponds to around 650 truckloads.

 

 

After loading, the dredger leaves the harbour and travels directly to buoy E3 in the North Sea. There, the collected Elbe sediment is spread in a targeted and controlled manner.</p

 

 

The journey of around 160 kilometres to the relocation site at buoy E3 takes around seven hours.

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From around July to January, the dredger makes up to 260 trips to buoy E3, relocating up to two million tonnes of sediment into the North Sea.

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Bin E3 is located in such a way that sediment from the Port of Hamburg is permanently removed from the river system. It is located in an area where silty sediments are also naturally deposited. The extensive scientific investigations carried out on site ensure that the relocation will not have any harmful ecological effects. The relocation site is considered to be particularly well studied and a safe place for sediment transfer.

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In Hamburg, the sediments are tested in advance. Only if they are clean enough can they be dredged and relocated to the E3 bin. In addition, scientists monitor the environmental conditions around the relocation site in detail every year in order to recognise potential impacts at an early stage.

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The large hopper dredgers are designed precisely for this application and are used worldwide as they are particularly economical and flexible. Separate vessels would result in long downtimes for the dredgers during transport times. In addition, dredgers with transport ships docked alongside are less manoeuvrable in narrow harbours.

 

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