"... Two masts, schooner-rigged, no bowspirt; red, circular, iron, cagework daymark at each masthead; hull red, with "COLUMBIA RIVER" in black on each side and "No.50" in black on each quarter."

"LV-88": In 1909 a steel-hulled ship driven by a steam-powered propeller, the "LV-88", replaced the wooden lightship. Throughout its career it was upgraded with electric lights and a diesel elecric engine. In 1978 the "LV-88" was listed on the National Register of Historic Places Structure #78002282.

"LV-93": In 1939, the "LV-88" was replaced by the "LV-93", a ship of similar design. The "LV-93" served at the Columbia River station until 1951, when "WAL-604" took over. From the 1942 "Coast Pilot":

"... Columbia River Lightship is moored on the Main Channel range for entering Columbia River, and is 8.2 miles 213^o from North Head Light. It has a red hull with COLUMBIA on each side and two masts. The light, shown from the foremast, is 67 feet above the water, and visible 14 miles. The fog signal is sounded on a steam diaphragm horn. The lightship has a radiobeacon equipped for distance findings; the station receives and transmits emergency radio messages. Storm warnings are displayed at the lightship during daylight hours. ..."

"WAL-604": The last lightship serving the Pacific Coast was the "Lightship Columbia", officially known as "WAL-604" (later "WLV-604"). This vessel is a128-foot welded-steel lightship built in 1950 for the U.S. Coast Guard. It was stationed at the mouth of the Columbia River between 1951 and 1979. Columbia Lightship "WAL-604" retired on December 13, 1979, after 28 years of service, and was replaced by a 40-foot-diameter and 42-foot-high navigation buoy. On December 20, 1989, the "Lightship Columbia" was added to the Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark #89002463.

"... Lightships were essential partners with America's lighthouses as part of the federal government's commitment to safe navigation on the nation's coasts and on the Great Lakes. While the first American lighthouse dates to the colonial era, the use of lightships is a more recent 19th century phenomenon in the United States, though employed earlier in Europe. Moored over treacherous reefs, or marking the narrow approaches to a channel or harbor entrance where lighthouses could not be built or placed in areas too far offshore for a shoreside lighthouse's lens to reach, lightships were fewer in number than the estimated 1,500 lighthouses built in the United States. In all, 179 lightships were built between 1820 and the 1952. In 1909, the heyday of the United States Lighthouse Service, there were 51 lightships (46 on the eastern seaboard and five on the Pacific Coast) on station in the United States. ...

The Coast Guard built six lightships. The first two, WAL- (later WLV-) 189 and 196, were built at Bay City, Michigan, in 1946. Somewhat similar in appearance to the 1930s lightships, the Coast Guard lightships, WLV-189 and 196, as well as the four lightships that followed them were the only completely welded lightships, built with a high degree of structural integrity and transverse bulkheads. These vessels were also the only lightships built with alternating current electrical systems throughout. They were direct diesel propelled, reflecting improvements made in high-compression diesel engines since the 1930s.

In 1950, two additional lightships, built to the same general plan of 189 and 196, and with the same features, were launched from the Rice Brothers shipyard at East Boothbay, Maine. WAL-604 and 605 were the last lightships built under contract for the government. In the same year, the Coast Guard built at its Curtis Bay, Maryland, yard Lightship WAL-612, another sister ship to 189 and 196. The last lightship was also built at Curtis Bay. Constructed in 1952, WAL-613, like her five preceding sisters, was a 128-foot welded steel vessel. However, the lightship mounted a single tripod mast of British design with the light on top. The Coast Guard-built lightships were the last in service, as all others were gradually retired. Technology brought an end to manned lightships about the same time manned lighthouses were being considered for automation. Large navigational buoys, 40 feet in diameter and 42 feet high, painted lightship red with automatic lights, fog signals, and radio beacons began to replace lightships in 1967. In 1983 the last two lightships, marking the Nantucket station, retired, ending a 150-year lightship tradition in the United States. ..."