The Ship Report: a look at patterns in our ships and ports

The Ship Report, Fleet Week Thursday

The Ship Report, Thursday, June 4, 2026 Fleet Week Thursday: Tours begin on Rose Festival Ships in Portland One final wrap up today on the Rose Festival Fleet which begins tours today in Portland. Ships are located on the seawall in Tom McCall Park, 10-4. Get there early because tours end promptly at 4 and if you are waiting on land at 4 you may not get in.  And I also wanted to share again that I learned some updated information yesterday from the Rose Festival Website that indicates that you need Real ID to board for a tour. Here’s what it says on the Fleet Week page: “When arriving for public tours, all visitors will be required to present a REAL ID-compliant government-issued photo identification (see approved identification list below), and pass through an airport-style security screening checkpoint prior to boarding the ships. A temporary form of ID is not an acceptable form of identification.” For all the current information about Fleet Week events, go to the festival website at rosefestival.org [http://rosefestival.org/], and click on the Fleet Week link at the top of the homepage. On Monday depending on what time they depart, we could see the USS Chafee and the HMCS Max Bernays heading downriver, I’ll keep you posted on that on Monday’s show and also any updates on the Ship Report Facebook and Substack pages.

The Ship Report: Fleet Week Wednesday

The Ship Report, Wednesday, June 3, 2026 Fleet Week Wednesday – Rose Festival Fleet Week ships arrive in Portland All of the ships arriving from offshore heading to Portland are now in the River. Today we will look at the ships that will be in Portland this weekend for the Rose Festival. We’ll also talk about what happens when visiting ships arrive in Portland, and how they are greeted, with open drawbridges and a fire boat ceremonial display. Ship tours are happening Thursday through Sunday, 10-4, at Tom McCall Park on the Willamette River. Get there early because tours end promptly at 4. An update on what you’ll need to board: The Fleet Week page now specifies this: “When arriving for public tours, all visitors will be required to present a REAL ID-compliant government-issued photo identification (see approved identification list below), and pass through an airport-style security screening checkpoint prior to boarding the ships. A temporary form of ID is not an acceptable form of identification.” See the Fleet Week page on the rose festival website to see the list of documents that are considered acceptable ID. https://www.rosefestival.org/events/2026/fleetweek [https://www.rosefestival.org/events/2026/fleetweek]

The Ship Report: Rose Festival Fleet Week Tuesday

The Ship Report, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 Fleet Week Tuesday Ships are starting to arrive in the river for the Portland Rose Festival; they’re the part of the festival referred to as Fleet Week. I’ll be tracking the ships as they arrive and sharing that information here. Today two ships head upriver: the Canadian Navy ship the HMCS Max Bernays passed Astoria inbound this morning to Portland and will be in Portland by early afternoon, and around 7:30am the USS Chafee leaves the Port of Astoria headed for Portland. Both ships will be on the Seawall at Tom McCall Park in Portland, open for tours starting later this week. For more info, see https://www.rosefestival.org/events/2026/fleetweek [https://www.rosefestival.org/events/2026/fleetweek] Also, the USNS Watkins, a Military Sealift Command vehicle carrier, should be at the Port of Astoria this afternoon around 2:30 pm. She left the river yesterday after departing from Vancouver, but will be back today at the port here in town.

The Ship Report: Rose Festival Fleet week Monday

The Ship Report, Monday, June 1, 2026 It’s Rose Festival Fleet week on the ColumbiaThis week we’ll begin seeing ships arriving to head to Portland for the Rose Festival as part of the Festival Fleet. One ship is already in town on Astoria: the USS Chafee, a Navy destroyer, which will head to Portland around midnight tonight. I’ll announce other ships as they appear on the schedule and include them in the ship schedule I publish during the week. You can tour ships in Portland this weekend. For more info see the Festival Website and click on the Fleet page: rosefestival.org

The Ship Report: a look at patterns in our ships and ports

Thursday, May 28, 2026 We see a lot of the same kinds of ships here, going to a set series of places. Today we'll talk about the different kinds of ships, and ports, we see here locally, and the inland water highway that makes much of our commerce possible.