The 410' long cargo ship West Cadron was built in 1920 at Western Pipe & Steel Company in San Francisco, California for the U.S. Shipping Board, in 1928 she was sold to the States Steamship Company and renamed Iowa. On January 12, 1936 Iowa and her thirty-four man crew attempted to cross the Columbia River bar and head to sea in the face of a fierce storm, which turned out to be a a tragic mistake.

The master, Edgar L. Yates, for unknown reasons, elected not to take a pilot on his ship and sail into the storm, which turned out to be one of the worst storms in memory. The winds reportedly reached almost 80 mph and forced the ship on to Peacock Split where it became stranded. At 4 a.m. Yates sent a distress signal, but because of the storm no rescue was possible. The Coast Guard ship Onondga under the command of Captain R. Stanley Patch nevertheless responded to the call, but when he arrived on the scene his ship was almost driven onto the split.

Patch stated that he saw the bridge and the funnel carried away and that "no life existed" on the Iowa, the waves took the ship apart and she settled on an even keel in the shallow water, but the violence of the storm had claimed every soul onboard. An inquiry found the master was justified in taking the ship out to sea, but why he made such a decision can never be answered.