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The Navy went big on Motor Torpedo Boat (PT) models in World War II, producing an amazing 690 PT boats between 7 December 1941, and 1 October 1945— and that’s not counting the early PT-1 through PT-9 prototype boats, the 10 Elco 70s (PT-10-19), 48 early Elco 77s (PT-20 through 68), two prototype 72-foot Huckins boats (PT-69 and 70), and 69 reverse Lend-Lease 70 foot Vospers.
PT 76, a 78-foot Higgins-made boat in Womens Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska circa 1943. NARA
The thing is, while these mosquito boats covered themselves in glory during their very up-close and personal war in the Med, Pacific, and English Channel, they very rarely got in solid torpedo attacks on enemy vessels. Their best employment came as fast scouts, lifeguard boats for downed aviators, running agents and commandos in the bad guy’s littoral, and in (typically nighttime) surface gun actions against enemy barges and coastal craft.
With that, the Navy got (almost) entirely out of the PT boat biz after 1945, torching or otherwise disposing of hundreds of boats overseas in the PTO and ETO and only keeping a few around for auxiliary purposes.
Then in the 1960s, with the Navy involved in littoral operations in Vietnam and not having anything smaller than 164-foot Asheville-class gunboats and leftover WWII 180-foot PCE-842-class patrol craft that needed 10 feet of water under their hulls to operate, the call went out for Fast Patrol Craft (PTF) which were basically nothing but PT boats sans their torpedoes.
At first the last remaining 1940s PT-boats were simply converted: the 89-foot Bath-built aluminum hulled PT-810 was pulled out of mothballs on 21 December 1962 and reclassified as PTF-1 while the Trumpy-built aluminum hulled 94-foot PT-811 became PTF-2 on the same date.
These were soon augmented by 14 Norwegian-built 80-foot Nasty boats (PTF-3 through PTF-16) ordered between 1962 and 1965.
Bow shot of Norwegian built, (left) and a U.S.-built PTF boat running at high speed together during trials off Virginia Capes, Early May 1963. “First Action Photographs of U.S. Navy PTFs. The U.S. Navy recently placed into service four patrol torpedo boats. The four boats, PTF-1 through PTF-4, are the only PT Boats in active service with the Navy. Assigned to Commander, Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, the four boats are based at Little Creek, Virginia, and are used in amphibious support and coastal operations, and with the Navy’s SEAL (Sea-Air-Land) teams. SEAL Teams are units specifically trained to conduct unconventional and paramilitary operations and to train personnel of allied nations in these techniques. PTF-1 and PTF-2 are reactivated U.S. Navy PT Boats with torpedo tubes removed, their armament consists of 20-millimeter and 40-millimeter guns for surface and anti-aircraft action. The top speed is more than 45 knots. PTF-3 and PTF-4 were purchased from Norway to fulfill an immediate requirement by the Navy.” Photograph released May 13, 1963. 330-PSA-101-63 (USN 711287)
Following the success of these new mosquito boats in the coastal waters of Southeast Asia, the Navy ordered six Trumpy-built Nasty boats (PTF-17 through PTF-22), which were delivered by 1970.
Then came an updated design, the four-strong (PTF-23 through PTF-26) 95-foot aluminum hulled Osprey class, built by Sewart Seacraft of Berwick, Louisiana.
PTF-23 class fast patrol boat Under construction at Stewart Seacraft, Inc., Berwick, Louisiana, 24 October 1967. Note engines on the floor at right and PCF in the right background. NH 95839
Entering service in 1968, PTF-26 spent three years in Vietnamese water with her sisters then was retrograded to the West Coast where she was assigned to Coastal River Squadron One at Coronado, then later used as a range control boat at the Pacific Missile Test Center. Finally retired from the Navy in 1990, she then spent most of the next 30 years as a school ship first for the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco and then for the non-profit as T/V Liberty.
More recently acquired by the Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation Ltd, PTF-26 has returned to its camouflage livery and is on her way to becoming an inland waterways training boat located in Golconda, Illinois where she will be offered to cadets from 164 different NJROTC and Sea Scout units across the Midwest.
The last of this line of more than 800 PT boats and follow-on PTFs, PTF-26, recently appeared in Mobile opposite Austal and I was able to grab a few snapshots of her.
The deck gun is fake, btw. Chris Eger photo
Chris Eger photo
Note her stern still has the T/V Liberty name. Also, that is the PCU USS Pierre (LCS-38) fitting out across the river at Austal, the last of the Independence-class littoral combat ships. Kind of a nice bookend with the last Indy LCS and last PTF in the same frame. Chris Eger photo
“Each weekend, 12-15 cadets or scouts will do more than take a tour of a U.S. Navy PT boat,” said Rev. Kempton Baldridge, MPTF’s managing director and a retired Navy chaplain, in a January interview. “They will eat, sleep, and train aboard as crew trainees. With a USCG licensed captain in command, PTF-26 will get underway with cadets or scouts as crew, guided by adult officers of their own unit. In port, cadets will learn everything there is to know about PTF-26. When ‘visit ship’ is held on Saturdays and Sundays for members of the public, qualified uniformed cadets and scouts of the crew will conduct tours, just as on board Navy and Coast Guard vessels.”
Fair winds and good luck, Two-Six Boat, there aren’t that many mosquitos left