PTF-26 at Sewart Seacraft in Berwick, Louisiana in 1968 | |
History | |
---|---|
Owner |
|
Builder | ] (now Swiftships) in Berwick, Louisiana |
Completed | 1968 |
Commissioned | 1968 |
Decommissioned | 1990 |
In service | 1968 - 1990 |
Nickname(s) | The Last American PT Boat |
Status | Museum ship at Golconda, Illinois |
Notes | #95PB 684 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Osprey-class fast patrol boat |
Displacement | 80 tons (105 tons full) |
Length | 94.5 ft (28.8 m) |
Beam | 24.5 ft (7.5 m) |
Draught | 6.8 ft (2.1 m) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 40 to 51 knots (74 to 94 km/h; 46 to 59 mph) |
Complement | 19 |
Armament |
|
Armor | 1⁄4 in (6.4 mm)-thick aluminum hull |
PTF-26 is a PTF boat, (Swift boat), museum ship at the Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation in Golconda, Illinois. PTF-26 is referred to as "The Last American PT Boat". PTF-26 was built in 1968 by the Sewart Seacraft now know as Swiftships in Berwick, Louisiana . PTF-26 is small river gunboat built with an aluminium hull. The United States Navy used PTF-26 in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1971 in the Brown-water navy. PTF-26 has a top speed of speed of 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph) knots. She is an Osprey-class PTF boat and is 95 ft (29 m) long. PTF boats replaced the wooden World War II PT boats. Four new PTF boats were delivered to the Military Assistance Group (MACV) at Da Nang, Vietnam in 1968, PTF-26 was one of the four boats. The four boats were armed with a 40 mm Bofors cannon aft, two Oerlikon 20 mm cannon forward, two .50-caliber Browning machine guns and on the foredeck, a 81 mm mortar. From 1971 to 1990 she was used by the US Navy at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado and Pacific Missile Test Center, Port Hueneme From November 1997 to June 2020 she was with Liberty Maritime Inc. as a Sea Scout training ship at Sacramento, California. On her way to Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation she stopped at Morro Bay, California departing December 14, 2023, then on December 16, the Maritime Museum of San Diego, then the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico and then Pickwick Lake of the Tennessee Valley Authority on July 2024. She is now at Golconda, Illinois where PTF-26 is the first historic naval ship in southern Illinois. At Golconda she is operated by Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps Cadets, Sea cadets and Sea Scouts.
Osprey-class boats
The four Osprey-class wooden hull PTF boats served in the Vietnam War starting in 1968, after being built at Sewart Seacraft (now Swiftships) in Berwick, Louisiana: PTF 26 now a museum ship at Golconda, Illinois, still in PTF configuration.
See also
- United States Nasty-class patrol boat built just before PTF 26
- List of museum ships in North America
- PTF 3
References
- ""Osprey" patrol boats (PTF23) (1968)". www.navypedia.org.
- "Gal_ptf23". www.ptfnasty.com.
- ^ "PATROL CRAFT FAST | Homeland Magazine".
- "PTF-26". HNSA. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- Ltd, Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation. "Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation, Ltd". Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation, Ltd. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- The Last American PT Boat video
- "PTF 26". museumships.us.
- "Ptf 26 Liberty | AMERICAN HERITAGE". www.americanheritage.com.
- "Vietnam Warship Docked At South T-pier | Estero Bay News".
- "Museum Boats". LIBERTY MARITIME.
- "Farewell, PTF 26". LIBERTY MARITIME.
- "PTF-26".
- "OspreyManual". www.ptfnasty.com.
- "PTF-26". www.ptfnasty.com.
37°04′08″N 88°39′19″W / 37.068917°N 88.655333°W / 37.068917; -88.655333
External links
- PCF-45 story, by Robert Shirley
- HNSA Ship Page: Swift Boats to visit as museums and memorials
- Swift Boat Sailors' Association
PTF boat | |
---|---|
Surviving boats | |
Units | |
Builders |
|
Classes | |
Notable missions | |
Similar | |
Media |
|
Museum - Restoration |
|
Related | |
Preceded by PT boat - Followed by Patrol Craft Fast and US patrol vessels |