The Most Recent Ship Report Podcast:

The bulbous bow: an odd-looking, but very efficient, ship design feature

There's a unusual-looking ship design feature that's on pretty much all the ships that arrive here on the Columbia. When a ship is loaded, it's out of sight below the waterline, but on ships that are waiting for cargo, like in anchorages, you can sometimes see it. It's called the bulbous bow. It looks like a round or cylindrical protuberance sticking out in front of the ship at the front, below the waterline. Strange looking, yes, but it actually reduces drag, and improves ship efficiency and...

Archive Podcasts:

Shipbreaking: a necessary and problematic industry

Today, in answer to a listener question, a look at a troubling but necessary industry: shipbreaking.

Where do old ships go to die? The answer mostly is to a shipbreaking yard somewhere in South Asia, to countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

We’ll talk about the hazards of shipbreaking as is it conducted in most cases. We’ll also look at places where environmentally responsible shpibreaking is happening.

Interesting vessels on the river this week

Today we’ll take a closer look at two unusual vessels on the river this week: the USNS Eagleview, which is currently docked at the Port of Astoria. And the Pan Viva, a ship that had a close call in Alaska recently in bad weather. A lot of difficult, careful work by the Coast Guard and and coorinated resources saved this ship from a disaster.

Do all big vessels take a pilot on board?

Today, a listener question about marine pilots: which ships take them and which don’t?

In the majority of cases, it’s a matter of the law. And we certainly see a lot of local domestic vessels, like tugs and excursion vessels, and US-flagged river cruise ships, that don’t take pilots. Their captains know the river well.

But almost all large visiting vessels operating in land waterways, worldwide, use the services of marine pilots, for safety reasons.

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