Cost $874,798 Commissioned 27 August 1943 Class and type Mesquite (B-Class) Launched 14 November 1942 | Laid down 20 August 1942 Decommissioned January 1990 Construction started 20 August 1942 Length 55 m | |
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Fate ran aground December 4, 1989; scuttled for underwater diving preserve Builder Marine Ironworks & Shipbuilding Corporation | ||
The USCGC Mesquite (WLB-305) was a 180-foot seagoing buoy tender (WLB). A Mesquite class vessel, it was built by Marine Ironworks and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth, Minnesota. Mesquite's preliminary design was completed by the United States Lighthouse Service and the final design was produced by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth. On 20 August 1942 the keel was laid. It was launched on 14 November 1942 and commissioned on 27 August 1943. The original cost for the hull and machinery was $874,798.
Mesquite is one of 39 original 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders built between 1942 and 1944. All but one of the original tenders, the USCGC Ironwood (WLB-297), were built in Duluth.
Mesquite served until December 4, 1989, when it grounded on a reef off of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior after, ironically, replacing the summer navigational buoy that warned of that very reef. After several hours of trying to free the vessel, the crew reluctantly abandoned ship.
The Coast Guard had intended to salvage the ship in the spring, but after several winter storms swept through, further damaging the vessel through crushing ice and hammering waves, it was determined that the damage was too severe. Mesquite was deliberately sunk in 120 feet of water not far from the reef where it was wrecked. It has been adaptively reused as an underwater scuba diving attraction of the Keweenaw Underwater Preserve.