Transformed diamond recovery ship heads for Namibia

VOYAGER 1, a diamond recovery ship belonging to De Beers Marine (Debmarine), has successfully completed her sea trials off Durban and was due to sail to Cape Town this week to take on crew and final equipment prior to going to her diamond concession area in Namibia.
When the 5900 gross ton Voyager 1 entered Durban from Singapore almost two years ago she was a crane barge heavily fouled with marine growth. Since then she has been fully transformed into a mining vessel complete with diamond treatment plant on board. In her new duties the ship will 'vacuum' the ocean floor across her concession area off the west coast, recovering stones that will be sorted on board ship.
While on station Voyager 1 will carry a crew of approximately 45 people to work 28 days on/28 days off. The crew comes from Cape Town and Namibia and will be ferried to and from the shore by helicopter, using a helipad specially built above the ship's bridgework.
The company intends renaming its ship and has applied for the name !GARIEP, the Khoisan name for Orange River.
Debmarine also maintains a fleet of seven other vessels. Four of these are also mining ships, one is an evaluation vessel and two are used for exploration purposes only. Voyager 1 is the company's largest conversion project and is expected to mine diamonds at double the rate of their other mining ships.
Mining for diamonds off the coast only became possible after 1961, when the colourful Texan businessman Sammy Collins proved to a highly sceptical industry that diamonds could be found on the ocean-bed, as a result of their being washed down the Orange River. In 1965 De Beers acquired Collins' company, the Marine Diamond Corporation, and has systematically mined the area ever since, now working in depths of up to 200 metres on the middle continental shelf. By 1997 some 475 000 carats had been produced from Namibian sea areas north of the Orange River. Debmarine is also prospecting in South African waters south of the Orange River.
BY TERRY HUTSON