US Army Corps of Engineers' Dredge McFarland Wraps Up Nearly 60 Years of Service

The Philadelphia District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) bid farewell to the dredge McFarland in a ceremony held on October 23 at Fort Mifflin, marking the close of its final operational mission after nearly six decades of service on the Delaware River and other U.S. waterways. Upon completion of the mission, the vessel entered standby status alongside the Fort Mifflin pier.

The McFarland was launched in 1966 at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Sparrows Point, near Baltimore, and completed in 1967. Over its service life it first worked for the Galveston and Jacksonville Districts before being transferred to the Philadelphia District in 1982 for maintenance dredging on the Delaware River and Bay. In total, the dredge removed more than 100 million cubic yards of material, equivalent to about 76 million cubic meters, according to Baird Maritime.

Since 2010 the McFarland had operated under ready reserve status, during which it completed 11 missions. Among the most notable was a 62-day operation at Southwest Pass on the Mississippi River in 2015, when approximately 950,000 cubic yards of material were removed while private dredges were committed to other jobs, as reported by Baird Maritime.

The dredge set to succeed the McFarland, named Donnelly, is being built by Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG) in Florida under a $256.9 million contract awarded in July 2023. Construction began with steel cutting in Panama City in April 2025, and the keel was laid on January 22, 2026. USACE expects delivery of the Donnelly by late 2027, though ESG has estimated it will not enter service until fiscal year 2028.

The farewell ceremony was attended by current and former crew members, members of the McFarland family and maritime partners. The USACE distinguishing flag was lowered and presented to relatives of Arthur McFarland, the dredge's namesake, who was a recognized authority on dredging within the Corps of Engineers. Sandra Wilson, granddaughter of Arthur McFarland, who had attended the original christening as a child in 1966, returned to Fort Mifflin for the farewell ceremony.