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Is this a Higgins boat?


renfield
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I know next to nothing about Navy ships and boats. I was at a local museum and around back this was sitting out in the weather. I had never seen one. It is made of plywood and not very large. Judge size by the tires it is sitting on. It is not the D Day type landing craft I have seen in the movies. I would love to get some info on this boat to pass along to the museum. Thanks.

Steve

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I agree it is a shame. Being in land locked Indiana we don't get to see many items like this. It is sitting only a few feet from a HUGH building that holds many W.W.2 vehicles. There is plenty of room for this nice piece. The museum is run by volunteers and I think they are more interested in tanks and jeeps and the like. I do think they should make some effort to at the very least keep it from falling apart.

Steve

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  • 2 weeks later...

As the hulls were US-made marine plywood over either Longleaf Pine, Douglas Fir or White Oak framing, there's nothing there that can't be rebuilt. If it's too far gone, it's common to take off the lines and build a new one using the salvaged hardware and whatever wood is still serviceable. There are few Higgins Boats out there today, and saving one is significant..

 

LCVP-plan.gif

 

Lookup Woodenboat Magazine's on-line forum for advice on restoration.

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Thank you for the link and the info. Next time I make the trip to the museum.....early next year, I will ask what their plans are for it.

Steve

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  • 4 weeks later...

I seem to remember that the WWII Museum in New Orleans had a couple of these on display when they opened it some years ago. Contact them and see if they may be interested in restoring this boat. Just think if that boat could talk, the war stories she could tell. :rolleyes: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone on the Forum. Danny

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I spent time as crew in one of those in the '80s. At the time, I hated every minute I was in it. Loud, greasy, troops puking and dumping trash. The bow ramp leaked, so there was always dirty sea water to pump out. Deisel exhaust fumes, Any part that was metal was rusty or coated in grease. Always wet from spray. Either the sun beating down on you off the Phillipenes baking you or freezing your bits off off Korea in February. Handeling lines that were wet and nasty, handeling cargo that never fit where it was supposed to go, Marines stepping on your hands while you held the cargo net for them. Had to wear helmets (which sucked) because our younger slower Green Brothers tended to "Drop Stuff" as they came down the nets. Not fun. Now, I'm greatful I got the chance to ride them. We don't do amphibious ops like that any more, but I got the chance to serve on an old Gator that still had "Over the Side" debarking. Got to talk with old retired Squids that rode Gators in WW 2 and had to make up the proceedures we used while they were getting shot at, (and who admitted that, like us, it never really worked as planned). I was one lucky Squid even though at the time it really sucked. Guess that's a common story for many of us that served.

 

Steve

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Something I might add that doesn't get shown in the movies. It's NOT put the boat in the water, fill it full of troops and hit the beach. You put the boat in the water. Then head for assembly circles where you drive in a circle for hours with the other boats of your wave. Thus, constantly sucking exhaust fumes. After several hours of this, all the boats are in the water, then you go along side in turn as your wave is called, to load troops or what ever has been decided is going in. Then off to circle around in wave forming circles for hours until all the boats of your wave are loaded and assembled into a wave. Then, on signeal, you move to the LOD (Line of Departure, 1000 yards from the beach). When every one is spaced on line, the PCS (Primary Control Ship, not nessicarily your ship) will give the signal to "Land the Landing Force". At that time, you race (usually about 8 knots, sometimes as much as 10 depending on your load) straight down an imaginary boat lane, getting constant course corrections from the PCS, usually visually by flashing light, which you usually miss part of since you are bouncing around and trying to stay up right. Then, hopefully you hit the beach,, in the right spot, on time. Don't get broached, get the troops off the boat (in peace time excersises, they are more than happy to get off). Then back to an assembly circle to wait to be called along side some ship or another for another load. I have done this for up to 22 hours a day, for weeks, You try to sleep when you can, but you're generally wet and rolling around on a wet deck. Eventually, your just done and fall out and sleep in puddles of sea water and unidentified "stuff". Hopefully, you have managed to snatch some C-Rats or other such eats. More than once the boat crews have been forgotten when it is chow time. But then on most over the side Gators, the cooks were cargo handelers, so no one ate until there was some sort of break and then it would be a baloney or cheese sandwich. Trust me, at times they were fantastic! Oh Yeah, "Amphibious Assault, Death From the Deep" Helluva life!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I agree. It's a shame to see anything like this go and something should be done. By the way, are there any surviving higgins boats from WW2?

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  • 2 weeks later...

It is a WW2 Higgins Landing Craft (LCVP). It was bought on Ebay. It was Located in Florida. It was outside unprotected for forty years or more. We are buiding a trailer to put it on, at this time. It is not an easy peace to move. When the trailer is it done, We will move it inside to be restored. It will be inside the rest of its life. The landing ramp is inside the boat. Joseph Smith, Vol. Staff. Indiand Military Museum, Vincennes,In.

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  • 2 years later...

If you want to PM me - I have just restored the inside of the hull and deck of a D-day LCVP we have. I have lots of photos etc. But I am not sure how to post any of them here. But if you want to see how it can be done then please get in touch. Its amazing what you can do in only a few days.

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Wow Sigsaye!

 

I had never heard before about how it all really worked. I bet you knew those boats well then.

 

Hopefully the one in this thread can be saved.

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Wow Sigsaye!

 

I had never heard before about how it all really worked. I bet you knew those boats well then.

 

Hopefully the one in this thread can be saved.

 

not much chaged....Dont sound like its to far off from WW2 days.Been reading several Iwo related books over the last several years and other Pacific accounts and the boat crews and troops said the same thing.

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I know next to nothing about Navy ships and boats. I was at a local museum and around back this was sitting out in the weather. I had never seen one. It is made of plywood and not very large. Judge size by the tires it is sitting on. It is not the D Day type landing craft I have seen in the movies. I would love to get some info on this boat to pass along to the museum. Thanks.

Steve

 

Steve

 

Take it on as a personal project.Start getting or raising funds to restore it.Sounds like they have the room but lack of intrest or funds??

 

Pound the pavement,go to VFW and Legion meetings,get word out in the local papers.May surprise you on the intrest and could get a positive result.

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  • 2 months later...

 

Steve

 

Take it on as a personal project.Start getting or raising funds to restore it.Sounds like they have the room but lack of intrest or funds??

 

Pound the pavement,go to VFW and Legion meetings,get word out in the local papers.May surprise you on the intrest and could get a positive result.

+1

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There's a guy in Connecticut that owns one, shows it off during Memorial Day parades and military shows, well one day he was feeling quite the ambitious type and decided to go full coxswain with blank firing 30 cal, ends up having his very own little D'Day on the CT river as happy as a clam until DEEP, CT state police arrive after calls of reported small arms fire.....you never go full coxswain

 

Ray

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