A quarter of a century ago, The National World War II Museum opened in New Orleans as The National D-Day Museum. I went to the exhibition for the first time later that year. In 2015, the Pacific Theater Pavilion was added, and I went to see what that was about. Today, the museum is made up of seven buildings and is considered New Orleans' greatest tourist attraction. I was there today because it meant something to me that I was there, at least once, during its silver anniversary year.
What does any of this have to do with WorkBoat? Well, in 2017, I received an invitation to ride on the 78'x20'8"x5'3" SS Sudden Jerk, the museum’s restored WWII patrol torpedo boat, before public rides were offered that spring. Did I want to ride on an actual World War II PT boat, fully restored, as part of a group of media types? You bet I did.
Delivered in 1943, the wooden PT-305 was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron 22. Built at Higgins Industries in New Orleans, the PT-305 got its name Sudden Jerk after a particularly hard landing soon after its delivery.
Based at Bastia on the island of Corsica, and later at St. Tropez in France, the PT crews hunted German ships, mostly at night, as the Allies pressed their way into southern Europe. (PT boats were also used in the Pacific.) The boats would launch their torpedoes then disappear into the night as the enemy returned fire. Powered by a trio of Packard W-14 M2500 gasoline engines, each burning 100-octane aviation gasoline to turn 1,500 hp on three shafts, the Higgins PT boats could sustain 27 knots and hit 41 knots at top end. A crew of up to 17 sailors manned four Mk 13 torpedoes launched from on deck, a single 40-mm and two 20-mm deck cannons, two twin and two single .50-caliber machine guns, and a 60-mm mortar.
Sudden Jerk was sold as war surplus in 1948 and PT-305 wound up with commercial fisherman Frank Reis of Provincetown, Mass. Several owners later, the vessel ended its career as a battered Chesapeake Bay oyster boat — shortened by 13' sawn off its stern to escape Coast Guard regulations on vessels over 65' at the time. Finally, a volunteer group from Kemah, Texas, the Defenders of America Naval Museum, rescued the boat in March 2001, hoping to restore it. Later, realizing the restoration job was too big for the group, it reached out to the New Orleans museum for help. Over the next 10 years, the vessel underwent more than 120,000 hours of restoration work by 200 volunteers in the museum’s glass-walled Kushner Restoration Pavilion and at a boathouse on Lake Pontchartrain.
Our ride lasted about 35 minutes, and I had a blast. The lake was acting up a little that day, and the ride was rough. But I didn’t care. I kept imagining how rough it was for the actual crew all those years ago. What is there to say?
Anyway, today, I saw the Sudden Jerk for the first time since that ride on Lake Pontchartrain. I’m happy to report that the boat is retired, has its own building (7), and looks just great.
I’m glad I got to see it again, and you should see it, too, along with all the other amazing exhibits at the National World War II Museum. Happy Anniversary.
