''PT-796'' is a 78-foot

PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the war ...

built by

Higgins Industries Higgins Industries was the company owned by Andrew Higgins based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Higgins Industries is most famous for the design and production of the Higgins boat, an amphibious landing craft referred to as LCVP (landi ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

in 1945. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1986 as one of a very few surviving

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

PT boats. A "Higgins" boat, she is part of the collection of the PT Boat Museum, which itself is part of the

Battleship Cove Battleship Cove is a nonprofit maritime museum and war memorial in Fall River, Massachusetts, United States. Featuring the world's largest collection of World War II naval vessels, it is home to the highly decorated battleship . It is located at ...

museum in

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

Design

''PT-796'' was laid down on 3 May 1945, launched on 23 June, and completed after the end of the war on 26 October. The last of her type to be constructed, she was nicknamed ''Tail Ender''. The hull was constructed of two layers of planking. Unlike earlier PT boats, where the layers were laid diagonally, the outer layer of ''PT-796''s hull is laid longitudinally, a change to the design believed to have been made to Higgins boats sometime in late 1944. Also, instead of two layers of mahogany, the inner layer is spruce. The two layers are held together by copper rivets and bronze screws, with a sheet of canvas impregnated with marine glue between them. The boat's full-load displacement is . She is in length, with a beam of , and a draft of . Her three 12-cylinder Packard

V-12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The fir ...

s each drove a single shaft, giving the boat a top speed of . With a full load of 3,000 gallons of 100 octane aviation fuel she had a range of at a speed of or as far as at a speed of using only one engine. The boat was armed with four

Mark 13 torpedo The Mark 13 torpedo was the U.S. Navy's most common aerial torpedo of World War II. It was the first American torpedo to be originally designed for launching from aircraft only. They were also used on PT boats. Design Originating in a 1925 des ...

es on roll-off racks, and guns in the bows, a

Bofors 40 mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

gun at the stern, and two twin

.50 caliber This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the to caliber range. *''Length'' refers to the cartridge case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a ...

M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, ...

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

s in mounts each side of the cockpit. She was also fitted with two Mark 50 rocket launchers, and a smoke generator at the stern.

Ship history

Placed in service too late to take part in World War II, ''PT-796'' saw temporary post-war duty as part of MTB Squadron 1, patrolling in the Caribbean and off the East Coast. She was reclassified as a "Small Boat" on 16 November 1945. Stripped of armament she was then assigned to the Navy Operational Development Force and Naval Ship Research Development Laboratory in

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn ...

, where she was used for high-speed towing experiments during the development of equipment for use in riverine operations. In 1961 she participated in John F. Kennedy's inauguration repainted as . The boat was placed out of service on 7 July 1970, and signed over to PT Boats, Inc. Restored to her original configuration, and has been displayed at

since 14 August 1975.

References

* **

External links

The Naval History Museum at Battleship Cove

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pt 796 1945 ships

796 __NOTOC__ Year 796 ( DCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 796 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era b ...

Buildings and structures in Fall River, Massachusetts National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts Museum ships in Massachusetts Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Fall River, Massachusetts

Design

Ship history

See also

References

External links