Lightship Columbia

Astoria, Oregon. Until its retirement in 1979 the lightship Columbia served as a sort of floating lighthouse, guarding the Columbia River Bar where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. The bar is part of an area known as the 'Graveyard of the Pacific' with something like 2,000 ships having sunk there. Operated by the US Coast Guard, she carried a crew of 18 who stayed aboard for weeks at a time. Columbia was commissioned in 1951 and guarded the river's mouth until she was replaced by an automated navigational buoy in 1979. Since retirement Columbia has been docked in Astoria, Oregon at the Maritime Museum, just upriver from her old station.