She served in the Pacific during World War II, and spent the rest of her Coast Guard career in the Great Lakes.

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.

Similarly, her bow was reinforced and shaped to ride over ice in order to crush it with the weight of the ship.

[2] In 1968 Mesquite was fitted with an experimental "sea plow" called the "Alexbow" to enhance her icebreaking capabilities.

[3] Mesquite had a single 8.5 feet (2.6 m) stainless-steel five-blade propeller[4] driven by a diesel-electric propulsion system.

The Rush-Bagot Treaty with Canada had largely demilitarized the lakes leaving Mesquite with only small arms for law enforcement actions.

Upon the completion of her fitting out and sea trials, Mesquite sailed from Duluth to the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland to have her armament and sensors installed.

[10] Mesquite was engaged in placing and maintaining aids to navigation in the Milne Bay Area for two months.

[6] After returning from the Pacific, Mesquite's first home port was Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, where she arrived on December 5, 1947.

Mesquite was engaged on this task on April 18, 1958 when she led three Canada Steamship Lines ships through the ice in Whitefish Bay.

This program engaged several cutters in icebreaking channels for tankers transporting fuel to Great Lakes ports.

[19] In September 1974, Mesquite rescued five people aboard a small powerboat that had been adrift for two days with engine problems and a dead battery.

Marie with the seasonal removal and replacement of buoys,[23] frequent calls for ice breaking over the winter, and the occasional vessel in distress.

At 11 am Mesquite went aground on Eleven-Foot Shoal in Green Bay and ripped a twelve-foot gash in her hull.

Mesquite's crew placed a temporary patch on the hull to stop the flooding, so there was no danger of sinking.

At the completion of the work in the fall of 1977, Mesquite took on the crew of USCGC Sundew, which was entering the Coast Guard Yard for her renovation cycle.

[30] The juggling of ships and crews continued in 1978 as the Coast Guards buoy tender renovation program progressed.

[31] In June 1980 Mesquite was ordered back to Charlevoix, and traded crews with Sundew which was home-ported in Duluth.

[37] She met USCGC Gallatin towing a 35 feet (11 m) fishing boat loaded with 20,400 pounds (9,300 kg) of marijuana, which she had seized.

Mesquite took up the tow, and turned the contraband and the six-man crew over to law enforcement authorities in Miami.

[40] By the late 1980s the World War II-vintage buoy tender fleet on the Great Lakes had become mechanically unreliable.

USCGC Sundew was late coming out of shipyard repairs, so Mesquite was once again tasked with removing some of her buoys as well.

The crew was taken aboard a passing cargo vessel, Mangal Desai, which had responded to Mesquite's distress calls.

[45] Up to 1,800 feet (550 m) of oil containment boom was deployed to capture a diesel fuel leak from Mesquite.

[43] High winds and waves up to 10 feet (3.0 m) battered the grounded ship on December 8 and 9, damaging the hull further, tearing off her rudder, and toppling her mast.

[46] Instead, efforts were made to pump off the remaining fuel, salvage high value equipment, and seal the ship for the winter.

[51] The Coast Guard believed that storms and ice would break-up the stranded Mesquite, transforming her into an environmental and navigational hazard.

[53] An agreement was struck in early May 1990 and Mesquite was donated to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for the proposed Keweenaw Underwater Preserve as an attraction for recreational divers.

[44] In preparation for scuttling, salvors stripped Mesquite of valuable parts, including the propeller, cargo boom, and anchor windlass which the Coast Guard wanted for its stores.

When her full weight was carried by the trusses, the heavy-lift barge had less than 6 inches (15 cm) of clearance to the bottom of the lake.