De D'Artagnan is a mega cutter suction dredger, built by order of S.D.I. (Société de Dragage International), part of the DEME group (Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering) at IHC Merwede’s shipyard in Kinderdijk, the Netherlands.

The contract in respect of building and delivering the D’ARTAGNAN was signed in December 2003 between S.D.I. and IHC Holland Dredgers BV. The contract in respect of the design and engineering of the vessel was received in August 2003. The building work of the vessel started mid 2004 at IHC Holland Dredgers’ shipyard in Kinderdijk. On 22 April 2005 the vessel was launched and on 28 September 2005 the vessel was handed over. 

The dredging installation is designed to reach a maximum dredging depth of 35 metres. D’ARTAGNAN is equipped with two onboard dredge pumps and one submerged dredge pump on the cutter ladder. The dredged sediment is pumped through a discharge pump with a diameter of 1,000 mm. The dredged sediment can also be discharged in moored barges using a very advanced barge loading and discharging system.

The spud carriage system is built by IHC and based on a new design. It comprises various buffer systems, resulting in an increased deployability under less beneficial weather conditions. The vessel is equipped with two propulsion screws (3,700 kW each) with which a speed of 12.5 knots can be generated.