The Ship Report, Thursday, October 9, 2025

The pilot boat Peacock, now a museum exhibit, was a real game changer for Columbia River commerceThis week marks 15 years since the pilot boat Peacock was lifted out of the Columbia River and placed on land, on the campus of the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, where she welcomes people traveling past the museum on Marine Drive.She's now a retired icon of Columbia River shipping, but when she first arrived here in the late 1960s, the Peacock opened a new era in river commerce. That was thsnks to her unprecedented ability to handle channeling weather conditions that previous pilot boats here could not.Today we'll honor the Peacock and talk about her work with the Columbia River Bar Pilots.