USCGC Mesquite (WAGL/WLB-305) was the lead ship in the Mesquite class of seagoing buoy tenders operated by the United States Coast Guard. She served in the Pacific during World War II, and spent the rest of her Coast Guard career in the Great Lakes. She ran aground and was wrecked in December 1989 off the Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior. She was scuttled nearby as a recreational diving attraction. Construction and characteristics Mesquite was built at the Marine Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company yard in Duluth, Minnesota. Her keel was laid down on August 20, 1942. The ship was launched on November 14, 1942. She was christened by Mrs. Jessie L. Tyler, wife of Lieutenant Commander Gaines A. Tyler, chief inspector for the Coast Guard at the Duluth shipyard. Her original cost was $874,798. Her hull was constructed of welded steel plates framed with steel I-beams. As originally built, Mesquite was long, with a beam of , and a draft of . Her displacement was 935 tons. While her overall dimensions remained the same over her career, the addition of new equipment raised her displacement to 1,025 tons by the end of her Coast Guard service. She was designed to perform light ice-breaking. Her hull was reinforced with an "ice belt" of thicker steel around her waterline to protect it from punctures. Similarly, her bow was reinforced and shaped to ride over ice in order to crush it with the weight of the ship. In 1968 Mesquite was fitted with an experimental "sea plow" called the "Alexbow" to enhance her icebreaking capabilities. This device was long, wide, and tall. It was attached by cables to the ship's bow which fit into a v-notch at the plow's stern. There were a number of problems with the experimental device and the design was not adopted by the Coast Guard. Mesquite had a single stainless-steel five-blade propeller driven by a diesel-electric propulsion system. Two Cooper-Bessemer GND-8 4-cycle 8-cylinder Diesel engines produced 700 horsepower each. They provided power to two Westinghouse generators. The electricity from the generators ran a 1200 horsepower Westinghouse electric motor which turned the propeller. She had a single cargo boom which had the ability to lift 20 tons onto her buoy deck. The ship's fuel tanks had a capacity of approximately . Mesquite's unrefueled range was at 13 knots, at 12 knots, and at 8.3 knots. Her potable water tanks had