Texas Maritime Academy training ship TEXAS CLIPPER at Galveston, Texas, c. 1994. The first ocean-going training vessel for the Texas State Maritime Program was U.S.T.S. Texas Clipper. Originally built during World War II, she was commissioned as the U.S.S. Queens (APA-103) in December of 1944. A C2-S-A3 Attack Transport, she carried troops and cargo in the Pacific theater, and brought many men home at the end of the war.

After WWII, U.S.S. Queens was converted into a civilian passenger liner. Renamed the S.S. Excambion, she served as a combination cruise liner/cargo vessel. The advent of the jet airliner doomed the Excambion, as well as many other passenger ships to unprofitability. The Excambion was taken out of service.

In the mid-60's, the Excambion returned to service as a training ship. Renamed the U.S.T.S. Texas Clipper, she began training merchant mariners, taking cadets to ports from Novia Scotia to Uruguay, and from Mexico to Poland. For more than 25 years, The Texas Clipper tirelessly plied the seas each summer.

Her final cruise was the summer of 1994. She is scheduled to be sunk as an artificial reef near Brownsville, Texas in the fall of 2005.