Vanport Flood 1948
In recent protests in Portland, the white nationalist group Proud Boys assembled on the edge of town in Delta Park, while, close by, Black Lives Matters counter-protestors gathered, on the other side of the highway, in a section of the park referred to as Vanport. Although little is left beyond the name, Vanport is part of the history of the struggle for racial justice that still resonates in Portland and so much of the nation today.
Built in just 110 days in 1942, Vanport was a housing project meant to provide shelter for 40,000 shipyard workers, who came to Portland to work in the three nearby Kaiser shipyards, building Liberty and Victory ships, as well as aircraft carriers, tankers, and landing ships, to support the war effort. Kaiser’s Northwest shipyards produced 752 ships during the war years and Vanport soon became the second-largest city in Oregon.
The second of two wonderful books recently released by 
Here are two short videos that provide a glimpse at the revolution in cargo shipping in the UK (and the world) over the last half-century. The first video, “
The steam collier SS Ayrfield was 61 years old. Formally called the Corrimal, the 1,140-tonne ship, ran coal between Newcastle and Sydney before serving as a transport ship for Australia during World War II. After the war, she operated again as a collier between Newcastle and Miller’s terminal in Blackwattle Bay. By 1972, she had reached the end of her useful life and was sent to a scrapyard in Homebush Bay, near Sydney, Australia, to be broken up.
Genetic analysis of modern descendants shows that sailors from the Pacific Islands arrived in the Americas long before Europeans arrived. The question is how long?
Some sailors along Spain’s Galician coast must be saying “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.” There have been reports of up to 30 attacks by orcas directed at sailboats on the northwestern coast of Spain and Portugal.
The Danish Ministry of Defense has confirmed that the Russian Navy corvette, Kazanets, collided with the refrigerated cargo vessel, 
Here is the story of a very lucky kayaker saved by unexpected rescuers on 
This seems like a suitable post for a Sunday in 2020.
Congratulations to 
Earlier this month, we 
On September 16, 1620, four hundred years ago today, the merchant ship 
Last February we posted “
Over the weekend, the container ship, CMA CGM Brazil, docked at the marine terminal in Port Elizabeth, NJ, part of the Port of New York and New Jersey on Newark Bay. At 15,148 TEU, it is said to be the largest container ship ever to call on any port on the U.S. East Coast. To make this possible, the Port Authority invested $1.6 billion dollars to dredge the channel and 
A Swedish consortium that includes 
The events of 9/11 are still more clear in my memory than I would like. The dry, clear morning. The call from my wife from the mezzanine of the World Trade Center after the first plane hit the North Tower. The orange blossom of flame when I saw the second plane hit the South Tower. The maelstrom of dust, smoke, and fire after the towers collapsed.