Higgins 70-foot Hellcat PT boat

The Higgins Hellcat was a 70-foot experimental motor torpedo boat that Higgins Industries of New Orleans designed and built on its own initiative in 1942 and 1943. Navypedia describes it as a 70 foot prototype MTB with high speed and a low silhouette. The prototype, PT-564, was about 21.3 metres long with a beam of 6.10 metres and a full displacement of about 40 tonnes. It used three Packard petrol engines on three shafts, reached about 46 knots, and carried four torpedoes, two twin 12.7 mm machine guns and a 20 mm gun. NavSource reports that the Navy bought the boat on 6 August 1943 after builders trials on Lake Pontchartrain, and that a Board of Inspection and Survey recommended production, but that a November 1943 Navy conference decided against it because the larger boats carried more guns and crew accommodation. The design therefore remained a single prototype used for training, and was sold in 1948.