Lightship Columbia (WLV-604)

Lightship Columbia (WLV-604) is a former U.S. Coast Guard vessel, now a museum ship in Astoria, Oregon (Clatsop County). She is moored at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, not far from the mouth of the Columbia River, where she served for almost three decades. Columbia was the fourth and last lightship on this station and is today a National Historic Landmark.

History

Lightships marked the mouth of the Columbia from 1892 to 1979. They guided ships across the dangerous shoals of the Columbia Bar, an area sailors call the Graveyard of the Pacific. Columbia's predecessors included LV-50, which was returned to the water in 1901 after being hauled about 700 yards overland, the steel steam-powered LV-88, and LV-93, which had served here since 1939.

WLV-604 was built in 1950 at the Rice Brothers yard in Boothbay, Maine, together with her sister ship Relief (WLV-605). In 1951 she replaced the aging LV-93 on station. In 1979 the lightship station was closed and a large navigation buoy took the vessel's place at the river mouth.

Columbia was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, but removed in 1983 after she was moved from her historic location. In 1989 she returned to the register and was designated a National Historic Landmark as Lightship WAL-604, "Columbia".

The ship

• length 128 feet (about 39 m), beam 30 feet, draft 11 feet;
• displacement 617 tons;
• a 1,200-watt light and an aviation beacon, with a range of about 13 miles;
• a diaphone fog horn audible for about 5 miles;
• a reversible 550 hp Atlas Imperial diesel engine.

Life on board

The permanent crew numbered 18: 17 enlisted men and a warrant officer who served as captain. Crew members rotated in two- to four-week shifts, with ten men aboard at any time. Everything had to be kept on the ship, since winter weather could stop supplies from the shore for weeks. Long stretches of monotony and boredom alternated with violent storms.

What to see at the Columbia River Maritime Museum

Columbia is now part of the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. Visitors go aboard and see the quarters where the crew cooked, ate, slept and worked. Next to the ship stands the very navigation buoy that replaced her in 1979.

Getting there

The ship is moored on the Astoria waterfront by the Columbia River Maritime Museum building, near 17th Street. She can be boarded as part of a museum visit.