The Most Recent Ship Report Podcast:

More weather on the way

Another storm is heading out way, with the potential to disrupt the flow of ship traffic on the river. This is pretty normal and happens in the winter time. Safety is essential for ships and the people on them.

Archive Podcasts:

A military vessel named Bob Hope with an interesting history

Aug 14, 2024

Today, an unusual vessel arrives on the Columbia: the Bob Hope, a military car carrier. We’ll talk about her interesting history and the military agencies that have used and continue to use her services. One of the many military ships we see often on the river.

This photo of the Bob Hope is used with permission and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Being a Good Samaritan is the law on the water, but also a matter of reality and tradition

Aug 13, 2024

Today we’ll talk about why mariners must by law help one another if someone is in trouble on the water.

It’s also a time honored tradition, not to mention a recognition of the reality that all mariners are equally vulnerable when things go wrong at sea.

Show transcript here: http://shipreport.nfshost.com/audio/SRTranscript081324.pdf

Upriver vessel handling on the Columbia

Aug 12, 2024

Often we focus here on the Ship Report on the portion of the river between Astoria and the ocean, where things are quite dramatic and treacherous on a regular basis.

But the upriver portion of the river is formidable as well. Today we’ll talk about the heavy currents and winds that are among the factors that make inland transits also challenging.

Show transcript here: http://shipreport.nfshost.com/audio/SRTranscript081224.pdf

A gem from the Ship Report Archives: a talk with author and fisher poet Tele Aadsen

Aug 05, 2024

This week we’ll hear from the Ship Report arvhives from an interview I did about year ago with fisher poet and author Tele Aadsen. Today she reads an excerpt from the her book, What Water Holds, a memoir about life in the world of commercial salmon troller fishing.

Fouled anchor off Astoria

Aug 02, 2024

A ship in the Astoria Anchorage this week experienced a fouled anchor: that’s when the anchor chain is wrapped around the anchor. This created a situation the ship could not handle alone and so they obtained the services of a barge with a crane to help untangle things.

This incident offers a great segue into anchors and anchor chains and how they work to keep these gigantic ships in place despite raging currents in the river.

Image: A ship in the Astoria Anchorage with a fouled anchor. Photo © Scott Saulsbury. Many thanks to Scott for the use of his photo.

Show transcript here: http://shipreport.nfshost.com/audio/SRTranscript080224.pdf

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