PT-305 was built in New Orleans by Higgins Industries, makers of the Higgins Boats, those small ones used to transport troops onto enemy beaches.
Since restoration, the PT-305's hull has been extended back to its original size, its mahogany decks repaired and made seaworthy again. They even renamed the vessel with its original nickname, "Sudden Jerk," on its bow. One of the boat's two surviving crew members said the it got its nickname after a hard landing at a dock in 1944.
Donald Rursch, a corn and soybean farmer from western Illinois, contributed the three Packard engines that powered PT-Boats in the war. He had started to collect surplus engines in the 1960s to use in tractor-pulling competitions.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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