The Complete US Coast Guard

Introduction

Introduction

This story was inspired by a resident of Astoria, Oregon, Joanne Rideout. In 2004, she became intrigued by all of the ships she saw crossing the Columbia River Bar outside her window. So, she began a podcast (in the same year those were ever called by that name).

This short, typically ten minutes daily, report captures the heart of the shipping in the area. It began as a list of ships but quickly grew to include stories of their crew and their adventures. One poor ship she told of was pirated four separate times in a single voyage enroute to Astoria, leading me to include it in the story below.

I can highly recommend her wonderful creation, Ship Report, no matter where you live: https://shipreport.net/.

Little did Ms. Rideout know of the huge popularity her assuaging of her own curiosity would create. It doesn’t rival the hundred-and-fifty-year-old Shipping Forecast issued daily by the BBC Radio 4, but it probably falls as a solid second worldwide.

But how to combine that with my desire to write about the US Coast Guard?

I then recalled the National Motor Lifeboat School. The very best coxswains from all over the world come here for training in the fierce waters of the Columbia River Bar.

The ones who succeed, who graduate at the very top, earn the honor of the title “Surfman”. There are only a hundred and fifty active-duty surfmen (about five of them women) among the five thousand boatswain’s mates in the USCG.

These boat drivers are the very elite.

Who better to meet and see what happens than a rather lost radio broadcaster, filling in on his aunt’s show, Crossing the Bar.

(Just a word of warning: the website I mentioned in the story, maritimetraffic.com, is a total time suck.)