The History of the HIGGINS Landing Craft

Andrew Higgins of New Orleans began designing and building small boats in the early thirties. By the mid thirties he was building workboats for the oil industry, which were exploring the swamps of South Louisiana, and needed a shallow-draft vessel that could run up on a sand bank etc and extract itself. His “Eureka” boat, made of wood, filled the need.

With much forethought and fearing that a war was a certainty in the not too distant future, and that there would be a need for thousands of small utility boats – coupled with this, there would be shortage of steel etc. – Higgins bought up the entire 1939 crop of Mahogany from the Philippines, and stored it for future use.

The United States Bureau of Ships, responsible for the design and procurement of all vessels for the US Navy, opened a competition for the design and supply of a small boat to be used as a general maid of all work, and as a beach landing craft. Most of the contenders were the established firms working in metal; the committee were not amused to receive the tender from Higgins, who specified the use of wood. It took two years for him to convince the bureaucrats that his craft would do the job.

His first task on receiving the US Navy Contract was to arrange a tour of the Ford car factories, for himself and his top technicians. The lessons they learned there helped them to build a similar factory turning out landing craft, on an assembly line never before used for boats. Within months he had built boat yards throughout the Southern States, churning out, not only LCV’s but also the original Higgins Boats, known in UK as the LCP(l), Landing Craft Personnel (light). Any of you who took the coxswain’s course at Barmouth, will remember trying to get the boats upstream against an ebbing tide.

By the end of the war, Higgins had produced over 20,000 boats in twelve factories, mostly in the Southern States. He had a workforce of 30,000, and was proud to be one of the first employers to reward his workers equally, regardless of sex or colour. It is interesting to note in the same context, that in the US Navy and the Army black personnel were only used in Labour Battalions and service Regiments as drivers and mechanics etc.

The basic LCV(p) was 36′ long with a beam of 10½’. Described as a floating cigar box, it was propelled by a protected propeller, powered by a diesel or gasoline engine of various makes. The Ramp was of mild steel, of varying thickness, depending on what was available at the time, the sides and stern were of the new marine plywood. The original steering wheel was central and high on the after decking, it was later moved to the port side and lowered to give the coxswain more protection. It was designed to carry a platoon of thirty-six men or a Jeep and Trailer.

Some variations were built during the course of the war, especially to the stern, some were fitted with a full rotating gun position on each side. Some such as ours, had only a circular opening, no gun mounting. One model had a twin barrel 35mm AA gun fitted to a strengthened platform in the well deck. Unfortunately, when it was fired forward the craft shot backwards at a fair old rate of knots, likewise, when fired to the side the craft capsized, this was not popular. Many craft were used as mine sweepers in harbours; later, as the Allies advanced into Germany, LCV(p)s were transported overland to help in the Rhine Crossing.

In 1998 a group of enthusiasts in the States decided to build an LCVP from scratch. From various sources they managed to find working drawings and material.

© Peter Frampton 2001

803 Flotilla – Craft

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