Civil & Marine Limited's new Bristol built dredger CAMBROOK is seen off Portishead on trials on 5th January 1967

The information below is derived from this website:

http://sandsuckers.blogspot.com/2017/01/south-coast-sixties.html

With a 15 year contract signed in 1965 with Hall and Ham River Ltd, to supply 180,000 tonnes of material to a new wharf to be built at Northfleet and an existing wharf at River Road, Barking, Civil & Marine Ltd entered the aggregate dredging trade on 16th February 1967 with the delivery of the CAMBROOK.

The company’s logo and funnel emblem of a mermaid was inspired by the sighting in Spain of a wire sculpture of a mermaid on the wall of a bar.

The Cambrook’s innovative design allowed for only a hydraulic (wet) discharge via a 1000ft shore pipeline at Northfleet and a significantly shorter one at Barking. Being essentially a system for discharging sand it proved extremely unreliable when dealing with sea dredged aggregate. However, with the ship’s production much reduced for some five months whilst a redesigned system was installed as she continued to trade, a record discharge rate of 4900tph was eventually reached at Barking.

So, while CAMBROOK started out as a potential disaster for the fledgling Civil & Marine, she became the cornerstone of the company’s future success with annual volumes of circa 650,000 tonnes (320 cargoes) being delivered, well above the Hall & Ham River contracted volumes. Hall & Ham River later became part of the RMC Group.

Built with twin variable pitch propellers, a bow thrust and probably the first aggregate dredger to trade with a Deep Load Line Certificate, at the end of the 1970s CAMBROOK was re-engined with the first two production engines of a new Blackstone (Mirrlees) design.

Later: 1984 ABU FARIS (Bahrain)