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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

HM MTB-419
ex-RPT-4
ex-PT-88



Call sign:
Nan - William - Mike - Peter


PT-88 served the Navies of Great Britain and Italy.
78' Higgins Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 16 May 1942 as PT-88 by Higgins Industries, New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 23 October 1942
  • Completed 19 December 1942
  • Originally assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron FOURTEEN, but reassigned for transfer under lend-lease to the Soviet Union before the squadron was commissioned and before any boats were delivered
  • The "Ivory Coaster" was reclassified RPT-4 and scheduled for transferred to the Soviet Union on 15 February 1943
  • Transfer canceled due to Spring convoys to the Soviet Union being halted
  • Transferred in April 1943 to Great Britain and named HM MTB-419
  • Struck from the Naval Register 17 April 1946
  • Transferred to Italy in February 1947 at Palermo, Sicily
  • Transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission in January 1948
  • Reclassified GIS-0021, 4 April 1948
  • Reclassified GIS-842, 1 April 1951
  • Reclasified as a Motosilurante (Torpedo Boat) MS-842 1 November 1952
  • Reclassified MS-442, 1 November 1954
  • Stricken in 1966 and transferred to the Guardia di Finanza (Customs)
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 78'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5' 3"
  • Speed 40 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: Four 21" torpedoes, one 40mm mount and two twin .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard W-14 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-88
    PT-88 159k 29 October 1942
    Port bow view of PT-88 under construction
    Higgins Industries photo.    		 .
    PT-88 182k c. January 1943
    Inspecting aft 20mm mount while en route to New York for turnover to the Soviet Union
    Photo from the collection of MoMM1/c Dave Prentice    		 Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    GIS-842
    PT-88 83k c. 1951 Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    MS-442
    PT-88 83k c. 1958
    Italian Navy photo from the 1961/1962 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships    		 Robert Hurst
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-88
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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