The U. S. Robert McGregor is an all steel dust pan suction type dredge. She was built in 1914 for the U. S. Engineers and first operated on the Warrior River in Alabama. Later she was sent to the Mississippi but left that stream in 1928 for the Missouri River where she now operates in the Omaha District. She is 220 feet in length, 45 feet wide and of 1000 tons burden. Her propelling engine is of 500 horse power and she travels about 7 1/2 miles per hour. A 700 horse power pumping engine motivates the suction mechanism. The suction head, 24 feet in width, draws the sand and dirt through the dredge and forces it out through approximately 400 feet of pipe line which extends outwardly from the side of the dredge on steel pontoons. Three crews, working on eight hour shifts, keep the dredge humming 24 hours a day and 7 days a week during the work season. A total of about sixty men is employed on this dredge.