27-05-2025
'One of the biggest things I've seen here': Why a huge crane ship is in RI waters
PROVIDENCE – The SSCV Thialf is hard to miss.
At 662 feet long and 473 feet high, it's the second-largest crane ship in the world.
Since steaming into Narragansett Bay on May 26, it's been attracting a lot of attention, with chatter on social media and in boating circles about what a ship that stands taller than the Newport Bridge towers is doing here.
'It's certainly one of the biggest things I've seen here,' Jamestown Harbormaster Bart Totten said of the ship that's anchored in the waters between his town and Newport.
The ship is being used in the construction of Empire Wind, the offshore wind farm off New York that has been in the news lately after the Trump administration abruptly issued a stop-work order for the project on April 16 and just as abruptly reversed course on May 19.
Operated by Netherlands-based Heerema Marine Contractors, the Thialf departed Rotterdam on April 1, according to marine traffic maps, and crossed the Atlantic to start work on Empire Wind, which is expected to have 816 megawatts of capacity or enough power for 500,000 homes.
When the stop-work order was issued, project developer Equinor said that construction of the wind farm was already 30% complete. It had to idle nearly a dozen vessels. The Thialf waited out the stoppage in Canada.
With the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management clearing the way for construction to start up again, the Thialf arrived in the Bay on the afternoon of May 26.
Because the waters there are sheltered and offer easy access to areas all around the Northeast, large ships often come in to wait out bad weather, pick up equipment or get ready for construction projects.
When it was constructed in 1985, the Thialf, a semi-submersible crane vessel, was the largest ship of its kind in the world. It was eclipsed in 2019 when the SSCV Sleipnir, which is also operated by Heerema Marine Contractors, went into service.
The Thialf is able to lift as much as 14,200 metric tons. In 2000, it set a world record at the time when it lifted the topsides, or upper portion, of Shell's Shearwater natural gas platform in the North Sea into place.
It will use its cranes to install the monopile foundations that will be hammered into the seafloor to hold up Empire Wind's 54 wind turbines. It will also be used to put in place the latticework foundation for the offshore substation that will help send power to shore.
The ship is finishing up its mobilization in the Bay, according to an Equinor spokesperson. Foundation pieces that were transported horizontally will be assembled vertically. Unionized construction laborers are being brought on board. And the Coast Guard is doing final safety checks.
The ship is set to depart Rhode Island and head out to the project site about 15 miles south of Long Island by June 1, the spokesperson said. Foundation installation will start afterwards.
This story has been updated with new information.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Giant crane ship SSCV Thialf waits in RI waters on the way to Empire Wind
