This isn’t worth its own post, so I’ll tack it on to the front of this one: in normal US parlance, a vessel that conducts dredging operations is called a “dredge.” Every comment referring to a “dredger” is like fingernails on a chalkboard inside my brain.
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing dams, dikes, and other controls for streams and shorelines; and recovering valuable mineral deposits or marine life having commercial value. In all but a few situations the excavation is undertaken by a specialist floating plant, known as a dredger.
“According to Wikipedia”: the three most trusted words in information!
In all seriousness, according to the talk page it’s a UK/US language difference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dredging#dredge_versus_dredger I didn’t actually know that before, and I’m glad I actually added the “US parlance” qualification to my last comment, out of the vague wonder that there might be somewhere it turned out to be used.
I will say that this is a pretty firm usage if you’re in the US, though. I’ve only tangentially worked with dredges (I’ve been on board one once—a hopper dredge for that one—and I’ve done one project where I had to design onshore structures to receive the spoil pipe from a pipeline dredge.) Between all of the work discussions about that last project and various sidebar/water cooler discussions about dredging in general over the years, though, the term “dredger” wasn’t used once that I can recall.
Now that I think about it, in the discussions for the pipeline dredge project, when discussing the vessel we were designing for the common way to refer to it was “the Dredge [Shipname]” or “Dredge [Shipname].” I don’t think use of the definite article is consistent when talking about a dredge, either for those project discussions or in general. Thinking further as I’m writing this, using “Dredge” as a prefix for the vessel name when discussing a specific dredge seemed somewhat common, too, though not universal. This would all be trying to remember from pre-COVID, though, since that would have all been water cooler/going to coffee talk which obviously hasn’t been happening for the past couple years, and I’ve not been involved with a dredging project recently which would have actual work conversation that would have occurred via teleconference.
At any rate, that’s all just explaining further that “dredger” is uncommon in the US, and I’d use “dredge” if you’re going to have discussions about how to proceed for a US audience. If you don’t have a British accent, you’re going to come off as the guy who only knows from a quick Wikipedia skim.
Wikipedia does use the term dredger:
“According to Wikipedia”: the three most trusted words in information!
In all seriousness, according to the talk page it’s a UK/US language difference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dredging#dredge_versus_dredger I didn’t actually know that before, and I’m glad I actually added the “US parlance” qualification to my last comment, out of the vague wonder that there might be somewhere it turned out to be used.
I will say that this is a pretty firm usage if you’re in the US, though. I’ve only tangentially worked with dredges (I’ve been on board one once—a hopper dredge for that one—and I’ve done one project where I had to design onshore structures to receive the spoil pipe from a pipeline dredge.) Between all of the work discussions about that last project and various sidebar/water cooler discussions about dredging in general over the years, though, the term “dredger” wasn’t used once that I can recall.
Now that I think about it, in the discussions for the pipeline dredge project, when discussing the vessel we were designing for the common way to refer to it was “the Dredge [Shipname]” or “Dredge [Shipname].” I don’t think use of the definite article is consistent when talking about a dredge, either for those project discussions or in general. Thinking further as I’m writing this, using “Dredge” as a prefix for the vessel name when discussing a specific dredge seemed somewhat common, too, though not universal. This would all be trying to remember from pre-COVID, though, since that would have all been water cooler/going to coffee talk which obviously hasn’t been happening for the past couple years, and I’ve not been involved with a dredging project recently which would have actual work conversation that would have occurred via teleconference.
At any rate, that’s all just explaining further that “dredger” is uncommon in the US, and I’d use “dredge” if you’re going to have discussions about how to proceed for a US audience. If you don’t have a British accent, you’re going to come off as the guy who only knows from a quick Wikipedia skim.