USCGC Matagorda (WPB-1303) is a United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 Island-class patrol boat

USCG Patrol Boat

The Island class patrol boat is a class of cutters of the United States Coast Guard. 49 cutters of the class were built, of which 41 remain in commission. Their hull numbers are WPB 1301 through WPB 1349.-Island Class Patrol Boat Overview:...

.

Matagorda was built by Bollinger Machine Shop and Shipyard at Lockport

Lockport, Louisiana

Lockport is a town on Bayou Lafourche in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,624 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

, and was commissioned

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

 on 24 April 1986.

The Island-class patrol boats were originally 110 feet (34 meters) long. Matagorda was the first vessel to complete an extensive refit that added a new superstructure

Superstructure

A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...

, and a 13-foot (4-meter) extension to her stern

Stern

The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...

, as part of the Integrated Deepwater System Program

Integrated Deepwater System Program

The Integrated Deepwater System Program is the 25-year program to replace all or much of the United States Coast Guard's equipment, including aircraft, ships, and logistics and command and control systems...

.

The new superstructure was intended to improve the habitability and endurance of the Island-class patrol boats. It was intended to enable the boats to comply with the Coast Guard's plan to make all vessels capable of housing mixed-sex crews.

The new stern extension allowed Matagorda to launch and retrieve her Short Range Prosecutor

USCG Short Range Prosecutor

The United States Coast Guard Short Range Prosecutor is a 7 meter, high speed launch designed to be launched from cutters, at speed, from a rear launching ramp....

 at speed.

Shortly after Matagorda reentered the fleet and arrived at her home port

Home port

A vessel's home port is the port at which it is based, which may not be the same as its port of registry shown on its registration documents and lettered on the stern of the ship's hull...

 of Key West

Key West, Florida

Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, she developed a 6-inch (152-millimeter) crack forward of her superstructure and a buckled hull

Hull (watercraft)

A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...

 on her starboard side. Similar problems with other vessels that had undergone this refit resulted in a decision to stop the refits after only eight of the 49 Island-class patrol boats had undergone them. A lawsuit was filed in the fall of 2006 against the prime contractors to recover the refund. A lawsuit in which the Coast Guard declared there was no hull fraud. Then years later the Coast Guard filed a separate lawsuit against the subcontractor Bollinger Shipyards Inc., attempting to recover the same damages for misrepresentation of the hull strength of the eight patrol boats.