 The Jan De Nul Group operates a hopper dredger built in 1998 also named "Alexander von Humboldt".Simón Bolívar wrote that "The real discoverer of South America was Humboldt, since his work was more useful for our people than the work of all conquerors".Charles Darwin expressed his debt to Humboldt, and admiration for his work, writing to Joseph Dalton Hooker that Humboldt was the ""greatest scientific traveller who ever lived"".