On March 31, 1941, Marine Iron and Shipbuilding in Duluth, Minnesota, laid the keel for the first Coast Guard vessel of a Mesquite new buoy tender class, joining the so-called "Black Hull" fleet. The new vessel measured 180 feet overall and had a beam of 37 feet at the extreme. She had a displacement of 935 tons and drew 12 feet. Marine Iron and Shipbuilding made all but one, the Coast Guard cutter Ironwood (USCGC Ironwood), coming in for $1,388,277, was built at the USCG yard in Curtis Bay,...