Over the past seven years, the national WW II Museum in New Orleans has been restoring a vintage PT boat, the 305, built in 1943 in that city by Higgins Industries. A big day came last week, when the boat was moved two miles overland to a barge, then onward for completion at Seabrook Marina, on Lake Pontchartrain.
A few factoids from the resto process:
"More than 200 volunteers worked on the PT-305 over the past seven years to get her ready to go back to work, and 67 are still at it. The museum estimates that the volunteer labor has a monetary value of about $2 million in addition to $400,000 in financial donations and about $3 million worth of supplies, materials and parts. This includes 300 gals. of paint, 120 gals. of Dolfinite bedding compound, 480 yards of #10 cotton duck, 10,000 board ft. of mahogany, 3,000 board ft. of cypress, 75 sheets of plywood, 39,000 copper rivets, three miles of caulked seam, 36,000 silicon bronze screws and 12,459′ of cabling and wiring."
For more on the recent move, see this from Workboat.com: https://www.workboat.com/news/passe...tm_campaign=newsletter&utm_content=newsletter
And for more on the boat and museum, see the Museum's website: The National WWII Museum | New Orleans: Collections: Artifacts: PT-305
It's amazing to consider that the shipyards that originally produced these boats could go from lay-down to launch in a little over two months. After deck shipping to the various combat theaters, PT boats went straight into operation.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
A few factoids from the resto process:
"More than 200 volunteers worked on the PT-305 over the past seven years to get her ready to go back to work, and 67 are still at it. The museum estimates that the volunteer labor has a monetary value of about $2 million in addition to $400,000 in financial donations and about $3 million worth of supplies, materials and parts. This includes 300 gals. of paint, 120 gals. of Dolfinite bedding compound, 480 yards of #10 cotton duck, 10,000 board ft. of mahogany, 3,000 board ft. of cypress, 75 sheets of plywood, 39,000 copper rivets, three miles of caulked seam, 36,000 silicon bronze screws and 12,459′ of cabling and wiring."
For more on the recent move, see this from Workboat.com: https://www.workboat.com/news/passe...tm_campaign=newsletter&utm_content=newsletter
And for more on the boat and museum, see the Museum's website: The National WWII Museum | New Orleans: Collections: Artifacts: PT-305
It's amazing to consider that the shipyards that originally produced these boats could go from lay-down to launch in a little over two months. After deck shipping to the various combat theaters, PT boats went straight into operation.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
