If you saw the 2015 tugboat race, you may have glimpsed this vessel . . .
She’s the current vessel of Ship 243 of Sea Scouts. Here’s what her current mate says about her: “Sea Horse was built in 1973 by Swiftships in Morgan City La.
Designed as for Vietnam, she was never was deployed. For some time she was used in the San Francisco Bay area as a training ship for Navy Special Forces. Then she was used by the CIA for what, who knows. She was covered in radar absorbing tiles. There was afire in the engine room and then mothballed before we got her.”
Click here for details of what Sea Scouts do.
Sea Horse has been hauled out and for regular maintenance, which always costs. Click here for details about how you can help. Given how difficult most of us know it is to find a work niche for our lives, Sea Horse is a valuable driver in that search; I wish there’d been Sea Scouts around where I grew up. If you do FB, check out Sea Scout Ship 243. Click here and here for two posts about another community on the water program.
The first two photos are by Will Van Dorp. The others are all used thanks to Robert Meseck, currently Mate and soon to be Skipper of the unit.
Click here for a previous swiftship post on this blog.
tugster: a waterblog 
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December 3, 2015 at 12:20 pm
mageb
We have another Swift Boat at our Maritime Museum. Now restored and crewed by old sailors who were on those boats in Vietnam, it gives harbor tours on the weekends.
http://sdmaritime.org/visit/the-ships/pcf-816-swift-boat/
December 3, 2015 at 5:02 pm
ws
Seahorse, The Wave Runner, and Jet Ski’s Predecessor:
Seahorse is a PB Mk I Water Jet Drive PBR River Patrol Boat:
Two 6V53T Detroit Diesels Driving Jacuzzi water pumps:
And No Propellers!
December 4, 2015 at 8:55 am
Les Sonnenmark
…not to mention the Littoral Combat Ship (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littoral_combat_ship), with gas turbines and diesels pushing 115,000 hp through four waterjets.