All hands on deck...

The time has finally come to re-deck  PT-305. The sheer is in place, deck ribs are secure, the inner layer of planking laid, the covering boards are installed and some the ridiculous eighty foot deck boards are ready for installation. Smiles are all around as the crew, for the first time, learns how to deck a Higgins PT boat. 

The groundwork for this moment was laid down back in 2009 when it was discovered that the deck of PT-305, and the ribs that supported it, were completely shot. Over sixty years of wear and tear had taken their toll on the construction. Deck ribs failed, screws corroded and planks rotted. This resulted in a very dangerous situation- any careless footstep on the deck would send a volunteer foot right through. Luckily the caution and vigilance of the crew has prevented any serious deck related mishap. The other major problem with the deterioration of the deck is structural. The planking of a wooden boat provides the majority of the strength in the completed vessel. A weak top deck would undermine the structural integrity of the boat while underway; therefore, if the deck was determined to be weak it would have to go. The crew’s worst fears were confirmed when the deck was removed.  Hoping the ribs would still be intact and could be used, the deck was cut away around the ribs, only to reveal that the glue in the deck ribs had failed and the ribs had delaminated, effectively flattening the deck and rendering it structurally unsound. The ribs were removed and the process of replacing the deck began.

This 2008 photo of a deck rib and decking demonstrates the damage done to the original woodwork.

Many measurements had to be made, sections of hull restored, debates started and material ordered before the deck was laid again. This is why it took until this Saturday to begin laying the final layer of decking.

Over the last few weeks the inner layer of 3/” mahogany planking was laid in a diagonal pattern across the entire length of the deck. This inner layer rests directly on the deck ribs, meaning when you are inside of the boat this is the “roof”. While the inner layer was being laid, the covering board was completed and Doc began production of the top layer of deck boards. The top deck boards are 5/8” by 2 inch mahogany planks that are spliced together to create boards up to 80 feet long. The deck boards run fore to aft, the entire length of the boat, except for the center section that is interrupted by the chart house and engine room hatch. Each deck board has a rabbet cut in it on both sides for the full length. A rabbet is a groove cut in boards to accept and overlap other boards forming a tight seal or, in this case, it forms a groove between neighboring boards that will accept caulking.

Due to the length of the deck boards, the crew has to route them using a special setup outside in order to create the rabbets. 

This photo shows detail of the decking.  The holes will get screws, and rivets will go on either side of the line of screws.  Caulking will fill the crevices in-between each deck plank.  The center plank, wider than the, others is known as the “king plank.” 

Screwing down the deck planks is a multi-person job.  The planks have to be perfectly aligned, and screwed into deck ribs which are not visible beneath the inner planking. 

The completed deck will be one inch thick consisting of the inner 3/8” planking, one layer of dolfinite, one layer of canvas, another layer of dolfinite and the final top layer of 5/8” deck boards. The rabbets in the final deck boards will allow caulking between boards. This entire assembly is screwed to every deck rib and riveted together between every deck rib. Because we are just learning how to do this and there is not a war on that needs this boat, we are taking a slower approach to decking the boat. The entire deck will be put on dry, without the dolfinite layers and canvas. Once the entire deck is fitted and “installed” it will be removed by section and “finished” installed with the canvas and dolfinite.

 This is a good time to explain the wonderful substance that is dolfinite. Dolfinite is a bedding compound used to waterproof joining layers of wood. It has many other uses, but in the case of PT-305, waterproofing is its main function. You can’t let the happy little dolphin on the front of the can lure you into a false sense of happiness. Its color is a mix of olive drab and puke green, and it has a smell of its own and a mind of its own. That happy little dolphin mocks you as this paste like substance sticks to anything and everything. It has single handedly ruined clothes and tools for Higgins boat volunteers since 1997. “Dolfinite duty” is a dreaded volunteer assignment that is greeted with laughter and stories of what this substance has done to hair, clothes, emotions and tools. Plain and simple, it isn't fun to work with, but for some reason we always enjoy it. After 60 years some of the original dolfinite is still moist, so this stuff works very well. When all is said and done we will have re-applied 200 gallons of dolfinite to PT-305. This accounts for roughly 3,600 pounds of the finished weight of the boat.

Volunteers Harold and Ed prepare to work with dolfinite. 

In this photo you can see dolfinite spread on top of canvas on a piece awaiting installation. 

In other areas, work continues at a fast pace. Frank’s crew working in the forepeak has completed the installation of all side and lower hull ribs and the stairs leading into the rope locker in the forepeak. Work on the bow should be completed in the next few weeks.

Frank and crew can be seen on the right-hand side of  this photo, hard at work on the bow of PT-305. 

The engine crew under Randy have one Packard 4M-2500 engine ready to go. The engine looks beautiful in the Packard colors matched from paint on original parts. Jim and Randy are working on mounting water pumps to the engines and finalizing plans for the test stand. One of the current engine stands will be converted to an engine test stand that will be able to sustain one idling engine for a few hours. Because of space restrictions within the engine room, Randy wants the engines thoroughly tested before they are installed. This will make quite a show in the parking lot next to the warehouse.

Propeller shaft alignment was momentarily discussed in the last post, and this week the tedious process continued. Because the engines and shaft need to be in almost perfect alignment this process will take a while. One of the oldest shipyard methods for aligning a shaft and support struts is the method that the crew has used on the two landing craft we have restored, and is now being used on PT-305. First, the angle of the shaft is determined. The starting and ending positions, the front of the engine and the propeller are established. Connecting these two points are a length of piano wire with a large weight attached to one end. This creates a perfect line, establishing a visual marker for all of the support struts, shaft holes and engine mounts to be measured off of. The support struts have round holes that the propeller shaft passes through. By mounting these struts with the piano wire centered in the middle of the shaft hole, a support system that will hold the shaft along this line is established, thereby creating a straight propeller shaft. This process is not as easy as it seems. It is very difficult to determine the starting and ending positions of the wire, the angle of the propeller shaft you want and centering the wire within the shaft struts. There is also one major catch, being a wooden boat, as soon as PT-305 is placed in the water the shape of the hull will change. The goal is to get it as close as possible in the warehouse to reduce the amount of tweaking required while the boat is in the water.   

Frank, Joey and Norman at work with their propeller shaft alignment setup.  The shaft will pass above the keel (the board in the center) and run through the aft bulkhead of the engine room, eventually passing through the keel and out of the boat. 

Post by Josh Schick and Kali Martin. 

All photos copyright of Jane Swaffield and Kali Martin.  

Prop shafts, engines and paint.

The last few weeks of hard work paid off with laughter this Saturday as 10 volunteers wrangled one 80 foot board onto the deck of PT-305 to make sure it was long enough. Laughing the whole time, the crew bent the board around the back of the boat, into the wood shop and curved up onto the deck. The original top layer of deck consisted of two inch wide mahogany planks in the longest lengths available at the time. This resulted in butt joints, where the flat ends of the boards are pushed together in the same manner as a wood floor in a home.  The last eight weeks have seen the completion of fore peak structure from the chine up and the final installation of all remaining deck and side hull ribs.

Doc is sanding a splice on one of the 80 foot deck pieces.

Frank’s crew, after finishing the work on the stem, have been working hard to finish fitting the remaining side hull ribs. These ribs need to be fitted into the side of the boat before the covering board is installed.  The reason this task has taken weeks to complete is due to the lack of good blueprints for the foreword section of PT-305. The volunteer marine engineers have been working on developing the curvature of the foreword ribs by following the survey of the original hull curvature. Because of this complication, Frank has had to fit each rib blank to the boat as its built. This means installing and removing the same pieces multiple times to make slight adjustments until they are properly fit. Now that these ribs are installed the covering board can be installed on the deck.

Frank works to fit pieces on the bow of PT-305.

The covering board is fitted to the outside edges of the upper deck; it covers the ends of the deck beams and the tops of the side hull ribs. The covering board needs to be installed in order to install inner layer of planking. 3/8” mahogany strips are laid diagonally between the covering boards the full length of the deck, forming the inner layer of planking. The installation of the covering boards was taken care of by the weekday crewmembers Bruce, Doc, Mark and Louie.

Bob Wade spent two weekends installing the Samson post and the engine cover hatch. The Samson post at the bow of the boat is as a hard point on the boat for tying off, usually the anchor line. Upon removing the original Samson post it was discovered that it could not be reused. A new Samson post was made out of solid oak, and the finished piece is roughly 5 inches square and about 12 feet tall, making it quite heavy. When installed, the post rests on the keel and is bolted to the crash bulkhead- the foreword most bulkhead that is meant to contain any damage from a collision. This completed the last major deck work before the task of laying the final layer of decking begins. The crew is looking foreword to laying the decking, in order to get ready to drive the thousands of screws and copper rivets that hold everything together.

This photo shows the Samson post and the construction of the forward part of PT-305.  The square section to the right of the Samson post is a hatch that leads into the forepeak. 

There has been considerable progress in the engine room in the last few weeks. The first engine for PT-305 is almost 100% restored. A few weeks ago the gearbox arrived from off site restoration and Randy’s engine crew completed rebuilding the supercharger. Both of these assemblies have been installed on the completed engine block leaving one completed Packard 4M-2500. Work has begun on a testing stand for the engine to test the capabilities of the engines. With one engine nearing completion the engine crew has their work cut out for them, only two left.

The 3500 pound engine takes quite a crew to move.  After putting the engine the crew had been working on onto a different cradle, the engine had to be wheeled out of the main restoration space, and around the corner to get into the engine room.

In order to allow further work in the engine room, Kali and Josh have been painting the lower section of the engine room.  Painting PT-305 is an important part of the restoration, and all of the spaces within the boat are being painted by hand.    The special marine paint used will help to keep water from seeping into the wood when the boat is in water.  In the engine room this is especially important, as it takes a significant amount of stress, making it even more important that the wood remain dry and retain its integrity.  Paint will also help the metal screws, bolts, rivets and supports from rusting, which can do significant damage to the wood, as the crew has seen during restoration.  The engine room is an especially complicated area to paint, with all of the added supports for the engines.  The bulkheads and deck ribs were painted in April with the help of a Navy crew, and with just one or two more Saturdays worth of painting left, the engine room is becoming bright white.

Painting under PT-305 is the only time sitting down on the job is allowed!

Under the direction of Jimmy Dubuisson, Frank and Norm have been working hard on installing the emergency steering shaft for the rudders and beginning the work of installing the running gear for the center propeller shaft. The installation of the struts that support the center engine shaft is a very sensitive project. Specifications for PT boats call for the engine shaft to be within .0001 inch alignment with the engine. This means that the shaft needs to be perfectly straight in its support struts and the engine needs to be aligned on the same line the shaft is set in. If the engine and shaft are not put on the same “line” the result will be severe vibrations and shaking, which is detrimental to the operation of the boat. The beginning of the shaft installation process involved a stripped down engine block with a laser light. The laser is aligned with the crankshaft in the engine, which will occupy the same “line” as the propeller shaft. The block was mounted in the center line engine brackets in the engine room. The laser demonstrates the center point of the propeller shaft line, showing where the shaft will penetrate bulkheads and the keel. These preliminary measurements will be followed by weeks of debate and problem solving with the project leaders.  More on this in the coming weeks.  

The propeller shafts are heavy and take quite a number of volunteers to move in and out of the boat as they work to align them. 

Photographs in this post are copyright of Jane Swaffield and Kali Martin.

Navy Week NOLA!

            

            For a period of 66 years PT-305 went without the hands of enlisted US Navy men working on her, but that all changed this Saturday. Throughout the morning, above the normal laughter of the crew and whir of the table saw was the constant buzzing of random orbit sanders coming from PT-305. The engine room was alive, not with three Packard 4M-2500 engines, but with the hard work of 5 US Navy volunteers with the ships of New Orleans Navy week.

            The PT-305 restoration crew is grateful to the US Navy and the eight volunteers who showed up to work, and work they did. Our normal finish paint crew consists of two people, George and Kali. George and Kali have a large task ahead of them, painting the interior of a 78-foot boat with three inch paint brushes. This task is not out of their capabilities, however, the Navy crew that came in was a tremendous help. The engine room has been a constant focus during the restoration, there are multiple crews coming in and out. The wood butchers were rebuilding bulkheads and stringers, the engine crew was checking for alignment of engine beds with the shaft holes, the structural crew was replacing stiffeners and the electricians were planning routes for conduit. With all this activity, painting has been a complicated task- until the Navy showed up. The Navy crew, working with George and Kali, had the entire engine room sanded and painted shortly after lunch. The compartment is now clear for the rest of the crews to return to work.  What should have taken weeks was done in a day.

            While five of the Navy volunteers sanded and painted, two more helped in the wood shop, working with the ban saw to cut out hull ribs.  Each rib is made as a blank, and then the exact curve and length get drawn onto the blank with the use of a pattern.  The cutting must be precise so that the rib will fit perfectly into place.  After cutting out some hull ribs, they helped Josh with some deck rib work. 

            Civilian operations continued in the 20mm ammunition locker and at the bow of the boat. Frank and Conrad spent the day working on cheek blocks. Cheek blocks are attached to the side of the keel between hull ribs. These blocks provide support to the planking where it joins to the keel. The majority of these blocks are a similar shape, making them easy to mass-produce, however, the cheek blocks on the stem are all sorts of shapes. This complicated task has really forced Frank and Conrad to think. At this point the keel curves up to form the stem and the hull planking comes in at a sharp angle. They have to make blocks that are curved with multiple angles, a task that leaves them frustrated but enjoying every second of it.

            Our intrepid trio of Harold, Jim and Ed were busy perfecting work place sarcasm and finishing the ammunition locker. The 20mm ammunition locker sits in the middle of the officer’s quarters and underneath the chart house. The last few weeks have been spent putting in the walls, which run from the deck to the keel: this assembly looks like an elevator shaft. This Saturday, the boys framed and finished the top deck of the ammunition locker, forming the chart house floor. This was done by cutting large strips of mahogany and bolting them to the sides of the ammunition locker. After that was completed, strips of mahogany were placed across the box forming the floor. After a ¾ piece of marine plywood was cut to fit the top, the floor
was complete.

Ed leans into the access hatch for the 20mm ammunition locker, which is located in the middle of the officer’s quarters. 

The radio operator’s position in the charthouse is above the 20mm ammunition storage.  His equipment sits on the deck, while the operator stands on top of the 20mm storage, putting him at waist height with the deck..  Harold (wearing a cap) is standing on a ladder finishing the installation of the charthouse floor.  The radio operator would stand just a few feet higher than Harold does here.  The gap to Harold’s right will have a ladder leading into the crews quarters, while Ed, at the bottom right, is in the officers’ quarters.

            The compartment immediately aft of the officer’s quarters is a fuel compartment. The fuel compartment contains two 800-gallon fuel tanks with the officer’s head between them. Steering, bilge plumbing, forced air ducts and electricity all pass through this compartment. Because fuel tends to be combustible, each system is run through watertight fittings and kept away from the fuel tanks. The electric lines run through steel piping that keep the lines out of any direct contact with fuel tanks and fuel fumes. There are three of these tubes for each side, making a total of six.  Jim Rivers spent the day working on fitting the pipe conduit to the foreword and aft bulkheads in the foreword fuel compartment. 

            The exciting day for the restoration crew continued when Rear Admiral Ann Claire Phillips visited the Kushner Restoration Pavilion to see PT-305.  Rear Admiral Phillips served as the operational commander for Navy Week NOLA.  Phillips also serves as the Commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Two out of Norfolk, Virginia, which includes the USS Wasp, one of the ships in New Orleans for Navy Week.  After touring the restoration pavilion and going aboard the 305, Rear Admiral Phillips, as well as all of the Navy volunteers signed the underside of the bull nose that is to go on the 305.  It was a great honor to have Rear Admiral Philips visit and take interest in the restoration project. 

Rear Admiral Ann Phillips stands on deck with volunteers Harold and George, and the Museum’s President, Dr. Nick Mueller. 

Rear Admiral Phillips signs the 305’s bull nose. 

            The PT-305 restoration crew would like to greatly thank Rear Admiral Phillips, the Navy volunteers, and all of the service men and women of different nations who came to see the 305.  We would like to extend a special thank you to the eight sailors who came and spent the day working with us:  Ensign Kenneth Pennington and Petty Officers Michael Wagner, Ken Besso, Russell Poyner, Chris Huddleston, Brian Schuler, Robert Hoffman and Leary.  Bravo Zulu to you all!

 Post by Josh S. and Kali M.  All photos Copyright of Jane Swaffield

We've been busy!

The major goals for the PT-305 restoration crew over the last few weeks have been the fitting and installation of the stem, building the ammunition locker, and the replacement of hull and deck ribs.  With the “Wood Butchers” hard at work towards these goals the front section of PT-305, she is on the verge of having all of her hull structure back into place.

The stem is the upward curving extension of the keel at the bow, which forms the very front of the 305.  This installation brings the keel, sheers and chines all together, which makes it an important structural element in the hull. With the sheers complete, the last few weeks have been spent building and installing the chines.

This photo shows the chines and sheers in place.  Permanently attached further back, they were only clamped to the stem, until it was permanently put into place.  After the stem attachment, the crew permanently attached the chine and sheers to the stem with large bolts. 

The chine of a boat is the meeting of the side and lower hull.    In the case of PT-305 it is a hard chine, meaning there is a sharp angle that defines this intersection. The chine runs the length of PT-305 on the port and starboard sides.  Due to the deterioration of the existing chine it was decided replace the foreword 20 feet of the port and starboard chines, splicing it into the original chine.

After a few lessons learned in gluing up the sheer, which included splitting apart a 20 foot glued section as the crew tried to attach it to the boat, the process was streamlined, and project coordinator Bruce Harris and volunteer Frank came up with the plan of attack. Three boards would be glued together on the boat to get the curve, then they would be removed, shaped and reinstalled as finished pieces. This process  took three weeks to complete. After two weekends of glue-ups the chine was removed in order for Bob and Frank to use electric planers to shape it. Once both port and starboard chines were shaped they were installed, clearing the way for the installation of the stem.

 Weekday volunteer Louis works on clamping a freshly glued piece in place on the starboard chine. 

  

The stem consists of three main components, the forefoot, the backing block and the stem. The forefoot is attached to the keel and curves upward, the stem is attached to the forefoot and continues the curve up to the deck, and the backing block secures the forefoot and stem together. When removed from  PT-305, all of these structures were too compromised to put back into place, each one would need to be rebuilt. The forefoot and backing block were built by laminating wood from other parts of PT-305. When a part cannot be used in its original location we recycle it by using it to make different piece for the boat. .

The crew created  the  components which make up the stem by gluing multiple layers together to from blocks of wood .  These blocks were then shaped into the forefoot and the backing block.  The final piece, the stem, was rescued from PT-659 when she was scrapped.   The forefoot and backing block were the first pieces permanently installed.  The stem installation could not be done until the chines and sheers were completed.

This photo shows the restoration work that can be done by the crew.  This is the stem of PT-659, a Higgins WWII original, that has been restored by removing soft, rotten spots of the wood and replacing them with strong, new mahogany pieces. 

 Although backing block and forefoot had been installed permanently for several weeks, the stem had been held in place only temporarily.  In late March, the crew gathered at the bow of the 305 as Frank’s crew completed the process of permanently attaching the final stem piece.  With a few words from Bruce, and wisecracks and laughter from the crew, the large stem was lifted into place.  Surfaces were coated in a special flexible epoxy, and as several of the crew strained to get the large piece in place, bolt it to the backing block, and attach the chines and sheers properly, the whole crew looked on, took photos and made even more jokes at the expense of those actually doing the work. 

Volunteers wrestle the heavy stem into place.  The piece had to be perfectly aligned so that it joined with six other pieces of the boat.

Inside PT-305, Ed’s crew has begun building the ammunition locker. This is where the 20mm and .50 caliber machine gun ammunition is stored. The locker is directly below the chart house and sits in the middle of the officers’ quarters. From the deck it looks like a plywood elevator shaft, and without any shelves installed it is a void from the deck to the keel. The sides of the box are joined by corner pieces with rabbets cut into them to receive the plywood.  (A rabbet is a ledge cut into the edge of a piece of wood.)  One side of the box is installed already, it’s an original bulkhead that is in place, and the other three sides have been rebuilt, having been removed by PT-305’s previous owners. These sides are 10 feet tall and take some muscle to wrestle into place. After a series of awkward lifts, the three sides have been clamped into place and are awaiting final fastening.

Ed and crew are on the deck while working on the ammunition locker.  The plywood and handrails on the deck is only temporary, so that volunteers have a surface to walk on while working.  When completed, the deck will be double layered, with a water tight layer in between the layers of wood.   The handrails are for the safety of the volunteers.  PT boats were not equipped with railings to prevent men from going overboard. 

Though the ammunition locker has not been completed, Norman and Jimmy can begin working on the foreword half of the steering system. The steering system runs from the wheelhouse to the lazarette, the last compartment in PT-305. When the wheel which is above deck, is turned, it moves a chain, which turns a pipe.  . This pipe runs roughly 60 feet from below the wheel to the steering gear box, just above the rudders. This simple connection of a chain and a pipe to the ship’s wheel turns the two rudders of the 305, thus moving the boat as it maneuvers through the water.   At this stage Norman is measuring and plotting the route through the various compartments and bulkheads while Jimmy works on securing and restoring the hardware that supports the system.

The engine room crew has been hard at work, installing all of the aluminum brackets and gussets which strengthen the engine room on the 305.  This helps prevent wear and tear on the wooden frame from the boat’s three 3500-pound, 1500 horsepower engines.

Post by Josh and Kali

The wonderful folks at the National World War Two Museum made this video about the restoration project.  We have to say a huge thank you, and a job VERY well done to John Weaver!

Wood Butchering...

Saturdays are big days at the John Kushner Restoration Pavilion, the constant sound of tools and laughter fill every space within the building. There are about 30 volunteers climbing all over PT-305, working hard and enjoying every minute of it. Part of the fun on the 11^th was using a tool in a manner it was not commonly used for.

A wood planer is a tool that finishes and smoothes the surface of wood, it is faster and more uniform than sanding a large piece by hand.   Usually a flat board is fed into the planer create a smooth surface or cut the board down to the desired thickness. That Saturday, Frank and his crew were feeding a board through that looks like an elongated corkscrew.  The scene was quite impressive, five men holding onto a board that was hopelessly crooked.  Conrad even had to stand on a ladder because the board bends so sharply it’s the only way he could hold the end up.  

So why would we be putting such a strangely shaped board through the planer?  The answer is that it is a very important component of a boat’s structure called the sheer.  The sheer is the board that makes the intersection of the deck and side hull on a ship.  It runs the length of the ship on both the Port (Left) and Starboard (Right) sides.  On the 305, the sheer is a roughly 4 x 4 piece of pine.   It took a week to build this piece of PT-305, and this piece was just one half of the forward part of the sheer. 

During the war at the City Park plant, where Higgins built PT boats, there was an entire mill dedicated to prefabrication of PT boat components. Once parts were completed in the mill, they were stored on the production line, at the point at which they would be installed.  This assembly line production was one of the reasons that Higgins Industries could build a PT boat Hull in roughly one month.  It’s not that easy with the restoration of PT-305. Each major part of the basic structure takes time to build.

Away from the boat, in our own little “mill” we call the wood shop, component manufacture continues. That Saturday in the wood shop, work continued on lower hull ribs - ribs for the bottom of the boat, and deck ribs - the ribs that hold the deck up. Both of these ribs are glued out of strips of wood with a two part epoxy in order to create a curved piece of wood. The deck ribs are being built in the same manner as the original ones, long strips of wood glued together to form a curve that matches the curve of the finished deck. The hull ribs follow the same process, except when they are complete they receive ¼ inch plywood lamination on both sides that create deck ribs that are far stronger than solid pieces of wood. Nothing is easy on the PT-305 restoration, it takes 12 hours for the glue to set up, many more hours to create jigs, cut and prep wood to assemble into the main structural components.

With most of the basic structure in place, other crews could begin new tasks. In the lazarette, the last compartment in the 305, Kali continued the process of finish painting. The finish paint provides an essential layer of protection, keeping water out of the wood, and must be applied properly before further fitting out limits access to the compartment.  While the external parts of the boat will be painted with spray guns, the inside will all be hand painted.  

            In the engine room, the steel crew, led by Jim, carried out the task of installing all the reinforcements. These are aluminum plates that exist mainly in the engine room. Their primary purpose is to hold the weight of the 3 Packard 4M-2500 engines and assist in the transfer of energy from the propellers into the structure of the 305 while it is under way. With the installation of these reinforcements the next big step can be made, installation of the mounts.

            With the engine mounts getting closer to installation we are that much closer to needing engines to place on them. Since 2009, when the physical work on the boat began, the engine crew, led by Randy, has been taking apart the three partially complete engines from PT-659 and working on bringing parts together to build one complete engine. The Packard V-12 4M-2500 engine is a very complicated engine; taking 3 engines, in various states of disrepair and missing parts, completely apart and cleaning everything has taken months. It has taken almost as long to take all the freshly restored parts and assemble an engine that is roughly 80% complete. This Saturday, the engine crew finished assembling the geared supercharger that will be installed on our newly restored engine. Now we only have two more to go…

Running the sheer through the planer.  Photos copyright of Kali Martin.

Post by Josh and Kali

First Post - An Introduction

In 1997, a group of men gathered at a small wood shop on Foucher Street, just yards from the Mississippi River in New Orleans. They had decided that the city of New Orleans had gone long enough without fully recognizing the achievements of Andrew Jackson Higgins during the Second World War.  They wanted to build a reminder of what Higgins had created and how he contributed to the war effort and the city of New Orleans.  This group eventually built a Higgins LCVP from the ground up, and completely restored a Higgins LCP(L) to its war-time condition. The Higgins Boat Society, the forerunner to the PT-305 restoration crew, prided itself on completely restoring the landing craft to their original conditions, using the same materials and techniques as often as possible. The Higgins boat society was just getting warmed up when it decided to restore a Higgins PT boat.

The Patrol Torpedo boat served in the US Navy during the Second World War. The concept behind this weapon is a light and fast craft, capable of delivering a knockout blow with a torpedo to any size capital ship. Their initial role as a torpedo delivery platform remained throughout the war; however, the boats began to encounter ships that were not suitable torpedo targets. PT Squadrons adapted to this role by increasing their armament, becoming fast gunboats. Pound for pound, PT boats became some of most heavily armed ships during World War II. Their impact was felt from the sudden jerk of a torpedo explosion to the violence of a high-speed gun run.

Working in close conjunction with the National World War II Museum the former Higgins Boat Society became the PT-305 restoration volunteers when the World War II Museum acquired Higgins built PT-305 in 2007. This is a complex and impressive restoration that could not take place without the combined efforts of the National World War II Museum and the remarkable talent and dedication of the PT-305 restoration volunteers.

This webpage will be used to tell the story of the restoration through the eyes of two of the volunteers on the project.  We will look back at the project, and through the next few posts catch up to the present.  We hope to receive your questions and comments as we share the story of restoring PT-305.  

This is the crew in about 2010.  Photo Copyright of Ron Moranto.


Post by Josh and Kali