Italy’s Prysmian has bolstered its subsea cable-laying fleet to five vessels with the purchase of the ultra-shallow-water barge
Barbarossa I
.
The cabling giant said the addition of the 67 m long would make it the first in the sector that can provide the full range of cable-laying solutions from the shallowest coastal waters in Northern Europe to the deepest areas of the Mediterranean Sea.
“We acquired Barbarossa I to round out our equipment portfolio, so that we can carry out a series of activities that are specific to areas with these shallow conditions,” remarked Valerio Acquaotta, head of installation for marine operations at Prysmian.
The ship’s maiden voyage for Prysmian has been to the tidal flats of the northern coast of Germany, where the company is installing some 130 km of land and submarine cables for the DolWin5 offshore grid connection project.
Aside from Barbarossa I, Prysmian owns four advanced cable layers the 2021-built Leonardo Da Vinci, the 1983-built Giulio Verne, the 2001-built Cable Enterprise, and the 2011-built Ulisse.
