By September 1935 Columbia was laid up, initially at a pier in the North River, and then at Hoboken, New Jersey. On 12 February 1936 IMM put her up for sale for scrap, and a month later Douglas & Ramsey of Glasgow bought her, reportedly for $275,000. On 22 April she left New York with a skeleton crew. She crossed the Atlantic for the final time and on 4 May 1936 she arrived off Bridgeness Pier at Bo'ness on the Firth of Forth. On 22 May she left her anchorage and was run aground at high tide under her own power at P&W MacLellan's yard to be scrapped.
