Owasco - class cutter The " Owasco " - class cutter was a cutter class operated by the United States Coast Guard . A total of thirteen cutters in the class were built , all named after lakes . Eleven were constructed by the Western Pipe & Steel Company at San Pedro , California , while the remaining two — " Mendota " and " Pontchartrain " — were constructed by the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay , Maryland . Initially heavily armed for World War II service and designated patrol gunboats ( WPG ) under the Navy designation system , the vessels were stripped of much of their armament shortly after the war , and in 1965 were redesignated high endurance cutters ( WHEC ) after the Coast Guard adopted its own designation system . Design . Rationale . Myths have long shadowed the design history of the class . These cutters were to have been much larger ships , and two theories persist as to why they were shortened . The first is that they were built to replace the ships given to Great Britain under lend - lease , and Congress stipulated that the Coast Guard had to build these replacement cutters to the same size and character as those provided to the British . The second is that their length was determined by the maximum length that could pass through the locks of the Welland Canal from the Great Lakes to the St . Lawrence River . The Great Lakes shipbuilding industry brought pressure on Congress to ensure that it had the potential to bid on the contract . The first theory seems to be correct , but the second cannot be ruled out . The Coast Guard had prepared a design for a cutter that was to have been an austere 327 . This design was cut down into the ship . To accomplish this , everything was squeezed down and automated to a degree not before achieved in a turbo - electric - driven ship . Machinery . The machinery design of the 255s was compact and innovative , but overly complex . It had pilothouse control , variable - rate ( 10 to 1 ) burner s , and automatic synchronizing between the turbogenerator and the motor . Westinghouse engineers developed a system of synchronization and a variable - frequency drive for main - propulsion auxiliary equipment , which kept the pumps and other items at about two - thirds the power required for constant - frequency operation . The combined boiler room / engine room was a break with tradition . The turbo - alternators for ship - service power exhausted at 20 psi gauge pressure instead of into a condenser . This steam was used all over the ship before finally going to a condenser . Space heating , galley , cooking , laundry , freshwater evaporation , fuel , and feed - water heating were all taken from the 20 psi back - pressure line . Icegoing design features . The class was an ice - going design . Ice operations had been assigned to the Coast Guard early in the war , and almost all new construction was either ice - going or ice - breaking . The hull was designed with constant flare at the waterline for ice - going . The structure was longitudinally framed with heavy web frames and an ice belt of heavy plating , and it had extra transverse framing above and below the design waterline . An enormous amount of weight was saved utilizing the technique of electric welding . The cutters ' weights were used for estimating purposes . Tapered bulkhead stiffeners cut from 12 " I - beams went from the main deck ( 4 ' depth of web ) to the bottom ( 8 " depth of web ) . As weight was cut out of the hull structure , electronics and ordnance were increased , but at much greater heights . This top weight required ballast ing the fuel tanks with seawater to maintain stability both for wind and damaged conditions . The superstructure of the 255s was originally divided into two islands in order to accommodate an aircraft amidships , but this requirement was dropped before any of the units became operational . Following completion of the preliminary design by the Coast Guard , the work was assigned to George G , Sharp of New York to prepare the contract design . Number . The number of ships in the class – thirteen in total – had an interesting origin . Three were to have been replacements for over - aged cutters , the " Ossipee " , " Tallapoosa " and " Unalaga " , and ten units were to be replacements for the class transferred to Great Britain under lend - lease . For economy , all thirteen units were built to the same design . Service . The class was initially heavily armed with World War II service in mind , but much of this armament was deemed unnecessary for peacetime and was removed in the postwar period . Construction of the class received a low priority , and consequently none of the cutters were commissioned in time to see action in WWII , but a number eventually saw combat in the Vietnam war . They were all however to provide many years of peacetime service in regular Coast Guard roles such as law enforcement , ocean station , and search and rescue operations . " Iroquois " suffered major damage in a maritime incident in the 1950s and was cannibalized for parts for the other cutters before being scrapped in 1965 . The remainder of the class was scrapped in 1974 .