Young people growing up on Puget Sound and coastal British Columbia in the 1950s and ’60s could attend a Saturday afternoon movie to see landing craft carrying Marines to amphibious landings on beaches in the South Pacific.
They could then walk down to their local dock and see the same craft, or a modified version, loading cargo to take to one of the small islands that dot the coast. Made of plywood at the Higgins Industries shipyard in Louisiana, these boats were only 36 by 10 feet and typically were powered by a single 250-horsepower Gray Marine 6-71 diesel.
By the 1980s and ’90s, the children of these young people would have seen the first surplus Vietnam War-era LCM-8s (landing craft mechanized) showing up at their local docks. These 74-by-21foot vessels were, and often still are, powered by a pair of Detroit 12V-71 engines. The commercial mariners of the Pacific Northwest were quick to add their own modifications to these versatile boats. The most important was a full aft accommodation block with a galley and bunks down and wheelhouse up.
A good many of these landing craft, especially the LCM-8s, are still working in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. Capt. Dan Crookes owns and operates a particularly fine example out of Anacortes, Wash. Built for the Vietnam War in 1968 by Higgins Industries, developers of the original wooden World War II craft, Crookes’ welded steel boat sat, mothballed and engineless, at the Higgins yard until 1989. Finally, it was given a pair of Detroit 12V-71 engines and was briefly stationed in Tacoma as an Army training vessel. It was then sold at auction to buyers who brought it to Orcas Island in Puget Sound’s San Juan Islands. These civilian owners lavished nearly $1 million on the boat. Most significantly, they had a 24-foot section added amidships to stretch it to 98 feet long. They also added an accommodation block with a galley. They topped it with a handsome West Coast style wheelhouse salvaged from a sunken Alaska limit seiner, which also provided a Skookum anchor winch. The winch now holds pride of place on the stern deck for the transom-mounted emergency anchor.
Bu hikaye Professional Mariner dergisinin September 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Professional Mariner dergisinin September 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
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