Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part One. USS Queens, 1944-1946, an Attack Transport: Serving in the Pacific War and Its Aftermath -- Chapter 1. Getting It Ready -- Chapter 2. Off to War -- Chapter 3. Peacetime -- Part Two. SS Excambion, 1948-1959, a Cargo-Passenger Liner: Plying the Mediterranean Trade for the American Flag Fleet -- Chapter 4. Teconversion -- Chapter 5. The New Four Aces -- Chapter 6. Troubled Waters -- Part Three. USTS Texas Clipper, 1965-1996, a Floating Classroom: Teaching Merchant Marine Cadets -- Chapter 7. On-the-Job Training -- Chapter 8. A Changing Role -- Chapter 9. Going Out in Style -- Afterword by J. Dale Shively. Navigating a Sinking Ship, 1996-2007: From Bureaucracy to the Bottom of the Gulf of Mexico -- Appendix: Queens/Excambion/Texas Clipper Timeline -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.