USCGC Mesquite (WLB-305)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career

Class:	Mesquite or B-Class
Laid down:	20 August 1942
Launched:	14 November 1942
Commissioned:	27 August 1943
Cost to build:	$874,798
Built by:	Marine Ironworks & Shipbuilding Corporation, Duluth, Minnesota
Decommissioned:	1989
Fate:	sunk in a diving preserve
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,025 tons
Length:	180 feet
Beam:	37 feet
Propulsion:	2 General Motors EMD-645 V-8 Diesel engines
Speed:	13 knots
Range:	8000 miles at 13 knots
Complement:	48
Armament:	Wartime: 20mm guns, a 3 inch cannon and depth charges. Peacetime: None
Aircraft:	None
Motto:	Semper Paratus (Always Ready)

The USCGC Mesquite (WLB-305) was a 180 foot sea going 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 1942-1944. All but one of the original tenders, the [[USCGC Ironwood (WLB-307)]], were built in Duluth.

Mesquite aground on her final voyage

Mesquite served until December 4, 1989, when it grounded on a reef off of the Keeweenaw 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 turned into an underwater diving preserve by sinking it in 120 feet of water.