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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive
Courtesy of Tommy Trampp

PT-278



Call sign:
Nan - George - Queen - Baker
78' Higgins Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 20 January 1943 by Higgins Industries, New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 10 March 1943
  • Completed 9 July 1943, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TWENTY THREE (MTBRon 23) under the command of LCDR Ronald K. Irving, USN
  • MTBRon 23, assigned to the South Pacific, had action at Bougainville and Green. Transferred to the Southwest Pacific in December 1944, the squadron had action at Palawan, in the Philippines. It also based for a time at Mios
    Woendi, New Guinea, and at Mindoro, P.I., but had no action from these bases
  • The "Bottoms Up" was placed out of service 26 November 1945
  • Transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission in December 1946 and sold
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 78'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5' 3"
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 40mm mount, two 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.
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