Over nearly 500 years, Hurst Castle has witnessed any number of cargo ships, from caravels to clippers, but these sailing beauties seem dwarfed by some of the merchant vessels of the 21st century – including the hopper dredger, Cemex Go Innovation.

Cemex Go Innovation passing Hurst Castle in September 2023 © Tricia Hayne

In fact, at 103.5m in length overall, and 16.4m wide, she’s not hugely bigger than the Cutty Sark (85.3m and nearly 11m respectively), but with a gross tonnage of 4,919 tons against the clipper’s 963, she certainly plays the part of the giant.  Interestingly, though, she has been designed so that she will fit perfectly into the narrow Shoreham Lock in West Sussex, with barely 50cm clearance each side.

Cemex Go Innovation was launched at Romania’s Damen Shipyards Galati in 2019, the first of a new class of marine aggregate dredgers (MAD 3500). Owned by global construction materials company Cemex, she went into service in 2021, and has since been an occasional visitor to the Hurst Narrows.

Also known as a hopper dredger, the ship is designed to extract sand and gravel from the seabed up to a depth of 55m – specifically in the challenging conditions of the English Channel and the North Sea. In turn, these materials are used in the production of concrete, asphalt etc for projects such as construction and roadbuilding.

The ship itself is built from high-tensile steel, which is both strong and light, and although she is largely diesel-powered, she is kitted out with an electric motor for the dredger pump.  Capable of travelling at up to 12 knots when fully loaded, she’d probably be outrun by the Cutty Sark, which topped 17.5 knots, but in today’s terms, her crew of just 14 would be considerably more cost-effective than the clipper’s 18–28.

Cemex Go Innovation may be a far cry from the classic lines and the genteel cargo of the Cutty Sark, but essentially both ships share the same aim: efficiency.