The Ship Report The Ship Report

Two cruise ships in Astoria today, more to come

Today we'll look at an unusual occurrence in Astoria: two cruise ships in town on the same day. One will anchor at the Port of Astoria. The other will anchor off the downtown waterfront and take passengers to and from land in a small boat called a launch.

We'll also talk about the spring and fall cruise ship calendar for blue water (ocean) cruises coming to Astoria.

Loss of Portland container service could hit small businesses hard

Today we take a look at a business story about the fallout in a port on the East Coast that recently lost container service in a disaster. In Baltimore, we saw a container ship destroy a bridge, and huge and awful consequences for that city and its people.

As that city recovers and efforts continue to clean up the debris, the loss of container service has hit small businesses there hard that used to receive inventory via container ships.

Something similar in terms of shipping, but thankfully minus the disaster, could happen in our region if the Port of Portland ends container service. We'll take a look at the impacts on small businesses when container service abruptly ends.

 

Who's on the river today?

Today we'll look at ships coming and going on the river and what's on board.

Beached boat on the Long Beach Peninsula shows hazards of coastal waters


Today we'll take a look at the ongoing story of a cabin cruiser that washed ashore on the beach on the Long Beach Peninsula. It's a story of a very lucky man and his dog, for sure - but what's next for them, as the boat sits aground on the sand? We'll talk about what his options are, and how marine salvage law, and state law, handle cases like this.

A look at where cargo goes after it reaches port

Today we'll take a look at some common arriving cargoes on the Columbia, and what happens to them after they are unloaded from the ship that brought them here.

More about general average liability for cargo owners - potentially daunting...


Today I'll revisit a concept I talked about on Monday's show... General Average - an ancient maritime principle that governs how losses in a ship disaster are shared between stakeholders. I was talking about the containership Dali and what sort of liability cargo owners on that ship could face.

Turns out quite a bit. Disasters are a reason why most companies shipping cargo have insurance against this sort of event. If they don't, it could be devastating.