The United States Coast Guard acquired a total of eight of these former Navy YF-257-class lighters between 1947-1948 for conversion to coastal buoy tenders.

They were needed to complement the larger seagoing buoy tenders in servicing short-range-aids-to-navigation, typically those placed in coastal waters and harbors.

These lighters were well suited for a variety of coastal tasks because their hull design incorporated a shallow draft with a solid engineering plant.

All of these 133-foot (41 m) lighters had sufficient cargo space for storing equipment and an open deck and boom for handling large objects.

Divers recovered the bodies of three of the dead but river sediment buried the cutter so quickly that continued recovery and salvage operations proved impractical.