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Andy Small
MASTER
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Posted on: Mar 16, 2016 - 1:10pm
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Thought I'd share some more Higgins Plywood Derby info I figured out after reviewing material from the National Archives. I've identified the Higgins 70' British boat as MRB-8, which I believe corresponds to the RN MGB-102. This has been one of the loose ends in my Plywood Derby research and it was nice to finally confirm, through official records, the actual boat that participated in this historic event.
Cheers,
Andy
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alross2
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Mar 16, 2016 - 5:12pm
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Andy, I'd be interested in seeing whatever you found on the 70' Higgins boats.
Al
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Andy Small
MASTER
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Posted on: Mar 17, 2016 - 7:50am
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Info on the MRBs is pretty light. The U of New Orleans has several plans, but only one, that I found, showing a sample of the transverse framing. You can find them in the undated Higgins section of the library without the BuShips numbers.
These boats had the less powerful (900 hp) Hall-Scott engines Supercharged engines.
By looking at the few photos of the earlier batch MRB-2, it looks like the overall hull was more like the later 76' PT-70. This is different from the other 70' Higgins (Hellcat) which has a lineage more from PT-6 Prime and PT-71 class.
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Andy Small
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Posted on: Mar 18, 2016 - 7:17pm
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Thanks to responses by Jerry and Al, I can state that I was incorrect on the MRBs having a hull closer to PT-70. Definite lineage with PT-6 Prime. As I've said before A little bit of knowledge can be a very entertaining thing....
Anyway, in addition to the 13 MRBs that were originally ordered by the Finns but then became MGBs with the Royal Navy, there were another 8 that were ordered by the Dutch as Anti-Submarine Boats, or what the Dutch designated as OJRs (1-8). These are easily identified by the four large ventilator aft and the superstructure similar to the original PT-71 configuration. They also had huge single digit numbers painted on the bow. The OJRs had only two shafts but with two Kermath engines per shaft (one forward of the other, facing each other and sharing a transmission). I had read somewhere about this engine configuration and had always wondered what boats they were referring to. These boats had all kinds of issues and the first six were all lost almost immediately (scuttlings and fires) with the fall of the Dutch East Indies in early 1942. OJR 1 and 4 were raised by the Japanese and became part of the Japanese Imperial Navy ( Cha 101 and Cha 72), probably the only Higgins so employed, and were later sunk by USAAF B-24s (13th AF) in April 1945. OJR7 and 8 were diverted to the Dutch West Indies and re-designated H7 and H8. They were later re-engined with two Packards.
So it looks like we can unofficially add another twenty one PT/PTCs to the Higgins total war production.
Andy
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