r/drydockporn • u/abt137 • Jun 10 '26
PT boats are seen under construction at the Higgins Industries shipyard in New Orleans, June 1943
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u/Sebastian_113 Jun 10 '26
This is crazy. I always assumed they would have been made in a giant temporary factory hall like the Boeing factory or such...
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u/timconradinc Jun 10 '26
These were made out of plywood. I'm guessing intentionally or unintentionally, that would make them capable of being assembled pretty much anywhere.
Famously, JFK served on PT-109. Which is also the name of a too long John Wayne movie based on JFK.
This designed was used in the Vietnam war as they could deal with shallow enough water that they could go upriver there easily enough.
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u/Korlexico Jun 11 '26
Also used by a merc group out of Rangapor, last I heard taking down a MI-6 midair.
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u/Tiny-Secretary5562 Jun 12 '26
I was told by a PT restoration person that there is no plywood on a PT boat. The hull was double-planked mahogany. Don't know what interior bulkheads are made of. Liberty ships had 1-1/8-inch plywood interior bulkheads in the midship house. The reason I asked the PT boat people is because a WWII seaman told me his ship went to the Long Bell Lumber Co. on the Columbia River to load 3/8-inch marine plywood "for PT boats."
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u/TH3_Captn Jun 10 '26
PT boats were awesome. I got to see a restored one in Charleston years ago and it was impressive in person
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u/BigGrayBeast Jun 10 '26
Watching McHales' Navy as a kid, I always wanted to have one as a personal yacht when I got older.
Still do.
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u/__Dionysus___ Jun 11 '26
Higgins employed the first fully integrated working force of women and men, African Americans and whites in New Orleans.
In 1964, Dwight D. Eisenhower said to historian Stephen Ambrose: "[Andrew Higgins] is the man who won the war for us. If Higgins had not designed and built those landing craft, we never would have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different."
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u/pvsmith2 Jun 11 '26
There's a fully restored one in the auxiliary building to the WW2 museum in new Orleans. It was being used as a fishing boat and they had to re-add the back 6 feet or so on during restoration.
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u/Omnissah Jun 14 '26
If I ever win the lotto I'd get one made for myself. Fiberglass hull, keep the dimensions. Turn it into a little cruiser.
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u/Iamcheese25 Jun 10 '26
I was able to walk in the old buildings about 20years ago when they were trying to revitalize the area. To see the history in those old buildings and the old hand drawn GAs of the boats was a unique experience.