The USTS Texas Clipper served as a merchant marine training vessel with the Texas Maritime Academy at Texas A&M University at Galveston for 30 years beginning in 1965. She is a 473' ship, and her name is reflective of Clipper ships of the past which had rounded sterns.

Prior to 1965, Texas Clipper served in WWII as an attack transport vessel named USS Queens. Following the war, in 1948, she was converted into a trans-Atlantic ocean-liner, the SS Excambion. Excambion carried passengers and cargo on a regular sailing route from New York to various Mediterranean ports. In 2006, she was transferred to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Atificial Reef Program to be turned into an artificial reef.

While being prepared to become an artificial reef, Texas Clipper was docked at the Port of Brownsville, Tx for cleanup of hazardous materials and modifications for wildlife and diver safety. The conversion, cleanup and sinking cost over 4 million dollars.

She was eventually sunk on November 17, 2007, approximately 17 nautical miles northeast of South Padre Island, Tx in about 130' of water, where her structure reaches depths as shallow as 50'.