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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

PT-459



Call sign:
Nan - Easy - Able - Mike
78' Higgins Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 19 August 1943 by Higgins Industries, New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 12 October 1943
  • Completed 23 March 1944, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron THIRTY (MTBRon 30) under the command of Lt. Comdr. Robert L. Searles, USNR
  • MTBRon 30 had action in the English Channel area during the period June 1944 to June 1945. It was then returned to the United States for reconditioning and reassignment to the Pacific, but the war
    ended while the squadron was still in New York
  • "Mahogany Menace" was placed out of service 15 November 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 28 November 1945
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration 18 June 1948 and sold
  • Cut down to 65 feet, modified into a sightseeing boat/fishing trawler and named Beachcomber IV
  • Acquired in 2009 by Robert Iannucci of Fleet Obsolete in June 2008 and moved to Kingston, New York for possible restoration
  • 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.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-459 110k Moored outboard of two unidentified PT boats Wikimapia
    Boat Captains
    01LTJG Stewart J. Moulin, USNJune 1944
    02LTJG J. M. Boone, USNRFebruary 1945
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-459
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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