The container cargo debacle is still a mess, with no real end in sight

An update on the tangled web that is international container shipping in the pandemic.

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Crab season opening spurs spate of rescues off Oregon coast

The U.S. Coast Guard was busy the past few days, rescuing crabbers in trouble off the Oregon coast, as the Dungeness crab season gets off to a start.

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Behold the latest in cargo shipping convenience: the Supersack

As container shipping continues to be snarled in ports worldwide, customers are switching gears and moving cargo the old-fashioned way: on general cargo ships in huge bags called “supersacks.”

Photo: Supersacks on the ground awaiting transport. Credit: U.S. Department of Energy from United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Flags of convenience, the reason why so many ships seem to be from Panama

Most merchant ships are registered under what are called ‘flags of convenience,” countries of registry that exist almost solely to provide ships with a cheap way to operate with minimal regulations. There are a few very popular flags of convenience. One of them is Panama.

Photo: Pete unseth, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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The attack on Pearl Harbor happened on this day in 1941

The infamous surprise attack on a U.S. military base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941, killed sleeping servicemen, sank ships in their berths, and drew the nation into World War II.

Photo credit: Pearl Harbor Memorial. Cdavidson602, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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Marine pilots: an unseen but vital maritime profession

Each day on the Columbia River, ships come and go and the people on board are largely invisible to people on land. On virtually every ship is a highly trained, experienced expert: a marine pilot, hired to use his or her local knowledge to help the ship navigate safely to and from port.

Photo: Columbia River Bar pilot climbing a pilot ladder. Image courtesy Columbia River Bar Pilots.

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How are small businesses faring in the global cargo snarl?

While big retailers use their considerable financial muscle to hire dedicated containerships to move just their merchanise to market, small businesses must sometimes wait months and even miss the holiday shopping season altogether, because cargo is delayed.

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Today’s the day: Dungeness crab season opens

A great day in the commercial fishing community: the Dungeness crab fishery opens today, on time for the first time in years. But the fishery is among the most dangerous in the world for the people working in it. So send your good wishes to the fishermen and women who are risking life and limb (literally) to bring us that fabulous seafood.

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The amazing story of the lightship that went overland

The amazing story of how a beached Columbia River lightship was brought back to life through an arduous journey overland.

Many thanks to the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco, and Frank Lehn, Long Beach Peninsula historian and moderator of the “Facebook Friends of the Long Beach Peninsula” Facebook page, two great local resources for area history. It was through them that I found this story and photo.

The background of the photo here is as amazing as the story of the lightship itself: 

This photo appears courtesy of the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum and Frank Lehn. It was taken by Ilwaco photographer, J.F Ford, who also had a studio in Portland. The photo is from a book donated to the museum recently by someone who found it in an antique shop in Massachusetts.

The book is an album of photographs published by Mr. Ford, showing the ship being moved across the isthmus and into Baker Bay. It was a souvenir book printed in a limited quantity, and likely used by the company as a way to advertise the type of job they were capable of.

Included with the book was an article that appeared at the time in an issue of Scientific American explaining in considerable detail how this feat was accomplished. – info courtesy historian Frank Lehn.

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