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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

HM MGB-187
ex-PT-213



Call sign:
Nan - Charlie - Love - George


PT-213 served the Navies of the United States, Great Britain and Yugoslavia

78' Higgins Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 14 August 1942 by Higgins Industries, New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 6 December 1942
  • Completed 12 February 1943
  • Placed in service 16 February 1943 and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron SIXTEEN (MTBRon 16) under the command of CDR Russell H. Smith, USN
  • MTBRon 16 participated in the Aleutian campaign from August 1943 to May 1944. Transferred to the Southwest Pacific, the squadron had action at Mios Woendi, Dutch New Guinea; Mindoro, P.I.; and
    Brunei Bay, Borneo. It also based for a time at Dreger Harbor, New Guinea, and San Pedro Bay, P.I., but had no action from these bases
  • Transferred 13 March 1943 to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron FIFTEEN (MTBRon 15) under the command of CDR Stanley M. Barnes, USN
  • MTBRon 15 was the first PT squadron sent to the Mediterranean Theater, where it operated as a unit of the British Coastal Forces. It had action throughout the western Mediterranean, basing at Bizerte and
    Bone, Africa; Palermo, Sicily; Salerno, Capri, and Leghorn, Italy; Maddalena, Sardinia; Bastia and Calvi, Corsica, and St. Tropez, France
  • On 24 May 1944, PT-202, PT-213 and PT-218 (under the command of LCDR Robert A. Allen, RNVR) sank German corvette UJ-2223, ex-Italian Maragone (C 52) and damaged UJ-2222, ex-Italian
    Tuffeto (C 51) off Vada Rocks, Corsica
  • The "Spittin' Kitten", ex-"Gallopin' Ghost" was transferred to Great Britain 17 October 1944 and reclassified HM MGB-187
  • Transferred to Yugoslavia in August 1945 and reclassified MT-7
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists transfer to Yugoslavia as October 1944
  • Scrapped in 1955.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 78'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5' 3"
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 40mm mount, four 21" torpedoes, two twin .50 cal. machine guns, one 37mm mount and one 20mm mount
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard W-14 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-213 125k Photo from the book Knight of the Sea Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    PT-213 125k Mattaponi (AO 41) off the Norfolk Navy Yard on 5 May 1943. She was headed for Europe with deck cargo that included PT-213 and PT-217. Mattaponi arrived 23 May 1943 at Mers el Kebir, Algeria
    National Archives photo    		 Shipscribe
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-213
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