Ahoy mates and welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here is a Model Shipwrights exclusive!
PT-305 Restoration Project Update
In July 2002, the Higgins built PT-305 was transported from Maryland where she was serving as an oyster seeding boat to Kemeh, Texas, just south Houston, to under go restoration. After sitting in south Texas for five years, the once proud craft was returned to New Orleans to start it’s restoration. The National World War II Museum staff and Higgins Industries volunteers who faithfully produced both a LCVP and a LCP(L) for the museum have bee sorting through Higgins PT-200 class plans and have complied a near complete set.
Also, while the plans were being gathered, the museum’s Collections and Exhibits Department have been acquiring replacement parts and cataloging items that came with the boat. Struts, shafts, propellers, rudders, exhaust pipes and steering gear have all been collected and are being verified correct to the original plans. The parts represent several boats including the PT-305, 308, 309 and 659.
This year, the museum, with the approval of the US Navy, salvaged the remains of the PT-659 for useable parts. The PT-659 was beyond the point of restoration. The main electrical panel, engine room control panel, water tight doors, heads, battle lantern brackets, electrical switches and boxes, two fans, through hull fittings, strainers, shear braces, log boxes, two engines and gear boxes, a rudder, fresh water tanks, the cradle and other small pieces have all arrived in New Orleans. All of these parts will be used in the restoration.
Ken Clark of Tulsa, Oklahoma donated a running Packard V-12 engine to the project to go with the two non-running engines from Vancouver, Washington which are scheduled for full restoration. The next phase of the restoration is to fit a temporary roof on PT-305 until workshop space is available.
The museum is actively seeking sponsors to fund the restoration as well as donors to fund the renovation of the warehouse at 940 Magazine St. in New Orleans into the Restoration Pavilion. Also the museum is asking that anyone with knowledge of available Higgins PT boat parts to contact the Collections and Exhibits Department at 877-813-3329 ext. 237.
PT-305 History
USS PT-305 was built and launched at the Higgins boat yard in new Orleans, La.; commissioned on 8 December 1943.
The Motor Torpedo Boat was assigned to MTBRon 22, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Richard J. Dressling. The Squadron was assigned to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and based at Bastia, Corsica, until moving to St. Tropez, France.
MTBRon 22 saw action along the northwest coast of Italy and the southern coast of France, operating, for the most part, under British Coastal Forces.
At the end of hostilities in Europe, the Squadron was shipped back to the United States for reconditioning and assignment to the Pacific. However, Japan surrendered while the boats were still in New York City, and the Squadron was decommissioned on 15 November 1945.
This Day in U.S. Naval History
1775 - Adoption of first uniforms for Navy officers.
1813 - USS Enterprise captures HM brig Boxer off Portland, Maine.
1918 - USS Mount Vernon torpedoed by German submarine off France.
1923 - U.S. Asiatic Fleet arrives at Yokohama, Japan, to provide medical assistance and supplies after Kondo Plain earthquake.
1939 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders Navy to form a neutrality patrol to report the presence of foreign warships within 300 miles of eastern United States.
1946 - USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt (CVB 42) and four escorts visit Greece to underscore U.S. support for the Greek government, which faced a communist insurgency.
1990 - USS Acadia (AD 42) departs San Diego for first war-time deployment of mixed gender crew on combat vessel.
Photo of the Day
The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) sails up the Hudson River during the parade of ships on the opening day of Fleet Week 2008 in New York.
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