Note these three hulls, which we’ll call A, B, and C. The identical arrangement of the “openings” in the bow are two smaller hawses on either side of a larger, more substantial one dead center. Each also has a sturdy round or octagonal “coaming” with some unusual railing work. Also, C has a single “davit post.” In the background of many of the fotos in this post, the toppling wooden house of Ned Moran (see last foto at that link) intrudes.
Here’s a port side frontal view of B and C, and
Here is the square center “island” of B and C.
and a closer -up of the center island of C that also shows the cylindrical stern coaming. Is that concrete reinforcing aka armoring of the center island?
Here’s looking forward from midships port side of C . . . up toward the curved davit post. Any ideas on identification?
With many thanks to Jeffrey Schurr, I got pointed in the direction of navsource.org. The two bottom fotos here by Ed Storey make the case for me. And that got me here . . . read the second paragraph from the end under the section “surviving LCIs.” Jeff calls my “exhibit B” LCI (L) 119, built at Hingham Bethlehem in 1944. Here a section from the “development” section of that last link: “The original British design was envisioned as being a “one time use” vessel which would simply ferry the troops across the English Channel, and were considered an expendable vessel. As such, no troop sleeping accommodations were placed in the original design…” If B is LCI (L) 119 . . . what are A and C?
Wow! Thanks much, Jeff. Also, again, much gratitude to James, Ed, and Gary.
















3 comments
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August 25, 2011 at 9:24 am
mageb
Fascinating. Thank you. I followed every link.
August 25, 2011 at 10:34 am
Les Sonnenmark
Vessel B has a crossbeam on the foredeck to support gangways port and starboard, similar to the photo of debarking soldiers on the Navsource website. But note the folding outriggers on the foredeck of vessel A; they seem to have rubber shock absorbers on the inboard side where they contact the stops once deployed; must be a high-tech sophisticated improvement over the crossbeam.
August 26, 2011 at 6:30 am
tugster
nice catch, les. the rubber shock absorber detail escaped me . . . although i had noticed vessel B’s crossbeam in relation to the Navsource site pic.