LV-50–Columbia

A Congressional Act of 1889 provided $50,000 to construct lightship LV 50, a composite vessel, to be moored at the mouth of the treacherous Columbia River Bar. Composite vessels were steel framed and wood planked. The frames, floors, keelsons, stringers, beams, sheer and bilge strakes, keel plate, etc., were steel. The planking and other wood sections were made of Georgia and Florida pine, the sheathing of white oak. LV 50, as COLUMBIA, was the first lightship stationed on the west coast and she served her entire career on the Columbia station, from 1892 until 1909 when she was laid up at Astoria pending further disposition.