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PT Boats - General
Post a reply to: HIGGINS TRAIN
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[StartQuote] Hi, I think Jerry Strahans bio of Andrew Jackson Higgins might cover this subject. I know that Higgins had several plants in different locations, starting with the City Park Plant, and then the larger one on the Industrial Canal and or Metarie. I remember reading something about the City of New Orleans allowing Higgins to temporarily move the boats across a graveyard adjacent to the factory since things were so crowded and tight around the City Park Plant. They had so many boats waiting to be launched they ran out of room on the factory grounds. I am pretty sure they transported the boats over to the "fitting out pier" at the Industrial Canal Plant at first by flatbed trucks (see the photo of PT6 below) and then by rail. There was simply not enough room to do the fitting out at the City Park Plant. They used a big crane over at Industrial Canal to pick the boats up from the railcars and place them into the water. Once things got more organized, the Industrial Canal Plant had the production line come out right next to the big crane that would simply pick the boats up and place them into the canal for completion between launching and commissioning. You can see a similar arrangement at Elco, where they had a "Fitting Out Basin" that was used to install the final armaments and equipment between when the boat was launched and completed for commissioning. If you read the telephone transcripts you can see that Higgins was set to produce 12 boats/month at City Park (downstairs) and 8 LCVP/day upstairs. Then at Industrial Canal he was set to produce 14-16 PT Boats per month as of Sept 1942. Truly amazing industrial output! Here are some pics of the Higgins facilities [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/PT6Trailered.jpg[/image] Bayou St Johns mostly LCVP's and LCM's [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/Industcanal_Aerial.jpg[/image] 1000th LCM [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/LCM1000.jpg[/image] 7000th LCVP [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/LCVP7000.jpg[/image] City Park front office [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/Citypark.jpg[/image] City Park from Higgins Clinic across street [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/CityParkfromHigginsclinicJuly1942.jpg[/image] Industrial Canal aerial view note big crane [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/Higgins_aerial.jpg[/image] Industrial Canal Plant crane launching PT82-PT85 on &Sept42 during Labor Day Rally and Ceremonies [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/PT828384andPT85LaborDayLaunch7Sept42HigginsCrane.jpg[/image] Boat hull leaving Industrial canal ready for launching by big crane [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/Higgins78cradle.jpg[/image] Two Higgins Industrial Canal Production Line output by big crane [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/HigginsFactory.jpg[/image] Higgins phonecon transcript to CDR Rawlings pg1 [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/HigginslettertoRawlings25Nov41.jpg[/image] Phone con transcript pg2 [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/Higginsrawlingsphone16Jun42pg1.jpg[/image] Phonecon transcript pg 3 [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/Higginsrawlingsphone16Jun42pg2.jpg[/image] Phonecon transcript pg 4 [image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/Higginsrawlingsphone16Jun42pg3.jpg[/image] Jerry Gilmartin PT658 Crewman Portland OR[EndQuote]
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