Higgins “78” Specifications:

• Length 78 feet
• Beam 20 feet 1 inch
• Draft 5 feet 3 inches
• Weight 43-56 tons, depending on weapons
• Engines 3 Packard V-12s
• Speed 40 knots
• Crew 2 officers, 11 men
• Higgins designed boat (Mr. Sprauge)
• More maneuverable than ELCO
• Engines located mid-ship

Weapons and Other Equipment:

• .50-caliber twin machine guns, effective as an anti-aircraft and anti-personnel weapon
• Oerlikon 20mm and Bofors 40mm guns for use against both air- and surface craft
• 4 Mark 13 torpedoes, mounted in roll-off launching racks, each weighing over a ton including a 600-pound warhead
• Small 60mm mortar able to launch illuminating rounds, lay smoke screens, and bombard shore targets
• Radar, especially useful at night (In the Mediterranean, radar-equipped American PT boats would often be paired up with British MTBs [motor torpedo boats], which had no radar, to hunt for German flak lighters at night.)

PT-305 Nicknames: 

• Sudden Jerk (Named by first crew and remained the boat’s name for the duration of the war: The story goes they ran into the dock too hard, someone commented on the sudden jerk, and the name stuck.)
• Half Hitch (rumored alternate WWII-era name)
• Bar Fly (rumored alternate WWII-era name)
• Scalloping 1 (1948–1953) • Jersey (1953–1973?)
• Dauntless and Man O’War (1973–1980)
• Vagabond (for Vagabond Tours, 1980)
• Miss Point View (1980–1986)
• Captain David Jones (NYC tour boat,1986–1988)
• Crow Brothers (1988–2005)

PT-305 restoration stats:

• Volunteer hours: 120,549
• Volunteer labor value: about $2 million
• Monetary donations: about $400,000
• Donations from more than 100 companies 
• In-kind donations: nearly $3 million worth of supplies, materials, and parts including:
  • Approximately 300 gallons of paint 
  • 120 gallons of Dolphinte bedding compound
  • 480 yards of #10 Cotton Duck 
  • 10,000 board feet of mahogany
  • 3,000 board feet of cypress 
  • 75 sheets marine plywood
  • 39,000 copper rivets 
  • 3 miles of caulked seam (double that for masking tape)
  • 36,000 silicon bronze screws 
  • 12,459 feet of cabling and wiring

PT Boat Losses:
During the war: 69 of the 531 PT boats were lost in service 

• Accident, friendly fire, sea conditions: 24
• Intentionally scuttled: 21 
• Enemy naval gunfire: 8
• Enemy coastal artillery: 5
• Attacked by enemy aircraft: 5
• Hit naval mine: 4 
• Kamikaze: 2

Postwar:

• Burned off a beach at Samar, Philippines: 118
• Many were given to allies, including China, South Korea, and the Soviet Union.

Ron-22 Combat Record:
SINGLY:

• 10 ships sunk (2 30-ton MAS boats, 1 1000-ton Coaster, 8 250-ton F-lighters)
• 16 ships damaged (1 30-ton MAS boat, 3 1000-ton Coasters, 6 250-ton F-lighters)
• Total tonnage hit: 11,390 tons 
• 30 prisoners taken

JOINTLY (with British Coastal Forces): 

• 6 ships sunk (3 1000-ton Coasters, 3 250-ton F-lighters)
• 4 ships damaged (4 250-ton F-lighters)
• Total tonnage hit: 4,750 tons