Building a traditional wooden vessel of the size of Dewi Nusantara is a complex enterprise that involves a lot of preparation, a lot of labor and a lot of time. Nowadays it is only feasible in those rare places where both the wood and the ship’s carpenters are still available. 

Dewi Nusantara was hand built as a one off project on the banks of the Karangan River near Sangkulirang Bay on the north east coast of Kalimantan. This is a five hour drive from the nearest airport but the spot had been selected because it is near an abundant source of ironwood.

First we assembled a team of master shipwrights and created a building site. The keel was laid in early 2007and after an enormous effort the basic hull, decks and superstructure were ready by December of the same year. 

Then on a high tide she was launched into the river stream and towed fifteen hundred miles South to Benoa harbour in Bali where all the finishing and engineering work was done under the supervision of a team of Western professionals. We are enormously proud of the final result, a beautiful vessel of immense strength that is equipped with state of the art machinery and electronics.

In May 2008 Dewi departed for her maiden voyage to North Sulawesi.