Jul 28, 2022
Today we continue this week’s series from my interview with Samantha Steerman. She’s the first woman ever to hold the position of vessel traffic coordinator, or dispatcher, for the Columbia River Bar Pilots.
To imagine yourself in her job, picture yourself sitting at a desk with a microphone, a radio transmitter and receiver, and a telephone, in an office with colleagues who are also asking necessary questions and checking in with important information. Not to mention numerous ships transiting the river inbound and outbound. All of these things may be happening at once.
At any given moment, she’s interpreting a scratchy radio transmission from the captain of an incoming ship whose first language is not English, fielding phone calls about ship and pilot transits, and talking with pilots who need to check in with her about other priorities.
Let’s just say it’s a job for someone with a cool head, a lot of multitasking abilities and skills, and inside knowledge about the local maritime industry.
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Jul 28, 2022 | Home Slider, Ship Report Podcasts
Today we continue this week’s series from my interview with Samantha Steerman. She’s the first woman ever to hold the position of vessel traffic coordinator, or dispatcher, for the Columbia River Bar Pilots.
To imagine yourself in her job, picture yourself sitting at a desk with a microphone, a radio transmitter and receiver, and a telephone, in an office with colleagues who are also asking necessary questions and checking in with important information. Not to mention numerous ships transiting the river inbound and outbound. All of these things may be happening at once.
At any given moment, she’s interpreting a scratchy radio transmission from the captain of an incoming ship whose first language is not English, fielding phone calls about ship and pilot transits, and talking with pilots who need to check in with her about other priorities.
Let’s just say it’s a job for someone with a cool head, a lot of multitasking abilities and skills, and inside knowledge about the local maritime industry.
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Jul 27, 2022
This week, we’re hearing excerpts from a recent interview I did with Samantha Steerman. Her official job is Vessel Traffic Coordinator for the Columbia River Bar Pilots. She works on the waterfront in Astoria. Her job requires her to juggle a lot of competing priorities at once, and each one is important. She’s also the first woman to hold this position for the pilots. And while she occasionally encounters other women in her day’s work, people she talks with in the course of her day are often surprised to hear a female voice, because women are still few and far between in the maritime trades.
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Jul 27, 2022 | Home Slider, Ship Report Podcasts
This week, we’re hearing excerpts from a recent interview I did with Samantha Steerman. Her official job is Vessel Traffic Coordinator for the Columbia River Bar Pilots. She works on the waterfront in Astoria. Her job requires her to juggle a lot of competing priorities at once, and each one is important. She’s also the first woman to hold this position for the pilots. And while she occasionally encounters other women in her day’s work, people she talks with in the course of her day are often surprised to hear a female voice, because women are still few and far between in the maritime trades.
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Jul 26, 2022
This week we’re hearing excerpts from my interview with Samantha Steerman: she’s the vessel traffic coordinator (dispatcher) for the Columbia River Bar Pilots in Astoria. She coordinates the comings and goings of ships and pilots on the river. That means she spends a lot of time on the radio talking to people from all around the world about critical details related to the transit of massive ships in and out of the Columbia. It’s demanding work with a lot at stake.
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Jul 26, 2022 | Home Slider, Ship Report Podcasts
This week we’re hearing excerpts from my interview with Samantha Steerman: she’s the vessel traffic coordinator (dispatcher) for the Columbia River Bar Pilots in Astoria. She coordinates the comings and goings of ships and pilots on the river. That means she spends a lot of time on the radio talking to people from all around the world about critical details related to the transit of massive ships in and out of the Columbia. It’s demanding work with a lot at stake.
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Jul 25, 2022
This week we’ll hear excerpts from my interview with Columbia River Bar Pilot Dispatcher Samantha Steerman.
She’s a seasoned professional in the maritime industry, and the first woman ever to hold the dispatcher’s position for the pilots.
Her job requires her to multi-task like mad: handling emergencies, coordinating pilot transfers, and working daily with people from many different countries.
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Jul 25, 2022 | Home Slider, Ship Report Podcasts
This week we’ll hear excerpts from my interview with Columbia River Bar Pilot Dispatcher Samantha Steerman.
She’s a seasoned professional in the maritime industry, and the first woman ever to hold the dispatcher’s position for the pilots.
Her job requires her to multi-task like mad: handling emergencies, coordinating pilot transfers, and working daily with people from many different countries.
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Jul 21, 2022
The Jones Act is a US law that says that cargo ships going between US ports in domestic trade must be US built, US flagged, and crewed by US citizens or nationals.
We have a Jones Act tanker on the river today, hauling Petroleum for Chevron. She’s an unusual ship because of her Jones Act status, but she is also among a small number of cargo ships that may not need to take a pilot on board.
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Jul 21, 2022 | Home Slider, Ship Report Podcasts
The Jones Act is a US law that says that cargo ships going between US ports in domestic trade must be US built, US flagged, and crewed by US citizens or nationals.
We have a Jones Act tanker on the river today, hauling Petroleum for Chevron. She’s an unusual ship because of her Jones Act status, but she is also among a small number of cargo ships that may not need to take a pilot on board.
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Jul 20, 2022
Today a look at one of the great mysteries of the world: the Mariana Trench. Seven miles deep, it’s almost impossible to visualize how far down it is from the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It would be eerie to be floating above it in a ship, but that’s how a research vessel originally found it in the 1800s.
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Jul 20, 2022 | Home Slider, Ship Report Podcasts
Today a look at one of the great mysteries of the world: the Mariana Trench. Seven miles deep, it’s almost impossible to visualize how far down it is from the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It would be eerie to be floating above it in a ship, but that’s how a research vessel originally found it in the 1800s.
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