Just an FYI. A museum here in NC is rebuilding a Higgins boat. newsobserver.com | Museum resurrects legendary WWII boat
The article said that this boat was bought from a museum in Normandie. I wonder if it is the one that could be seen outside the museum at Utah Beach? Though, I thought that to one at Utah was smaller than the one in the article. Mats
I am reading the book The Pacific War Remembered by John T. Mason Jr. In the book there is an oral history taken from Captain Paul Moore Jr. who was one of the first Marines to land on Tulagi. He stated, "In those days they did not have the LSTs and other landing craft whose bows were able to come down on the beach so you could walk ashore...The way you used a Higgins boat, you'd drive into the beach, jump out of the cockpit over the side, and unload, which of course left you much more exposed to enemy fire than keeping underneath the sides of an LST and having the bow go down as you were ready to come in... One of the things you had to do was to hold onto the rail around the gunwale until you found your footing...." I haven't found this type of Higgins boat online. Did one like this ever exist? How high were the sides? And where's the gunwale? (Because if every man had to grab onto the gunwale unloading would be lengthly)
This is not a great photo but I hope it shows the type you spoke of:- Found it on Google site by roaming around!! Sgtleo
Nice to see a fellow North Carolinian here, I lived up in the Raleigh area for several years and would love to move back some day. I know the museum the article is speaking of in Beaufort. It's a small little place but, they had some nice stuff. My wife is from Warren, Ohio and near there used to be a WWII museum. It was called the WWII vehicle museum and learning center and was in Hubbard Ohio. Last time we went there they had just gotten a Higgins boat from somewhere. The guy didn't know a whole lot about it but, it looked to be in pretty fair shape. The owner of that museum died a while back and I believe the contents of the museum were sold to someone in Florida. I have no idea if they bought everything or not, hopefully they'll open a new museum up. I really enjoyed visiting that place when we went to visit my in-laws. Pretty much all the vehicles ran and were driven around for shows and stuff, it was in an old indoor tennis facility and the guy who owned it all also had quite a bit of land and ran his heating and air conditioning business out of it.
Think I read somewhere that it was the Marines that pushed for and got the bow ramp change to the Higgins boat. Senior moment can't remember where that was!! Sgtleo
Yes there is! The man who designed that boat, Andrew Jackson Higgins, is known as the man "who made New Orleans" pronounced Nawlins. Mr. Higgins died on August 1, 1952, and is buried in New Orleans. The National D-Day Museum in New Orleans has honored him by having an exact replica of a Higgins Boat as the centerpiece of the museum displays - a rightful place for a great Nebraska hero.
NOBODY there pronounces it "Nawlins." The same goes for the "The Big Easy." Neither terms are used by the locals. Keep this in mind if you are ever there, and for your safety, please don't refer to New Orleans by those names.... The National WW2 Museum (formerly known as the National D-Day Museum) is located in the warehouse district of New Orleans, located at 945 Magazine Street, which is uptown from the French Quarter. Uptown means upriver, towards Baton Rouge. The museum has one re-built Higgens Boat on display. If any of you Rogues are ever in New Orleans, or are planning on being there for Mardi Gras, save at least one day to sober up and visit the museum (it is closed on Mondays). It took me about 10 days to cover it all, and I read every word of every exhibit. It will be worth your while to say the least. Go to www.nationalww2museum.org for more info. You won't regret seeing it.
Well I've been there about a hundred times, and always say it that way, and nobody has ever looked at me twice. My family who has lived in New Orleans for over 60 years says it that way, as well as my friends. Simply because you don't say it that way, doesn't mean others don't. I don't deal in absolutes.
My meaning was tourists call it that, much in the way that tourists call San Franciso "Frisco." It was meant to be a light-hearted jab anyway, not an attack of any sorts. I'm sorry that you took it as such, that was not the intent. Of course you can call it what you want.
no problems buddy! you say tomoto, i say tamato! ( well, you know what i mean , it's just hard to write that!)