Is that an Elco PT boat? Or is it from Higgins, or a Huckins?
on Worton Creek, upper Chesapeake Bay, February, 2009
Elco was located in Bayonne, NJ; the Higgins yard was in New Orleans, LA; and Huckins is in Jacksonville, FL.
Based on the Huckins photo, it looks like the Worton Creek PT boat is not one of theirs...
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Thank you, Google! Mystery solved. Turns out it's PTF-19 (www.ptfnasty.com/ptf19.html), a Viet Nam-era "fast" attack boat built by Trumpy, the iconic wooden yacht builder whose yard was located on Spa Creek in Eastport, MD until 1973. John Patnovic, who owns the Worton Creek Marina, apparently is restoring the boat for historical display (or was planning to...). Recently he and his crew were highlighted in Professional Boatbuilder (No. 178, April/May 2019) for rebuilding a 74-foot Spencer sportfisherman that was run aground shortly after being commissioned. They've got more wrecks on their rebuild agenda, but PTF-19 is not listed as one of them. I found a reference to the Trumpy being sold at an old boat boneyard in Suffolk, VA in 2004, and then moved up the Bay by barge. As of 2019 it was still sitting there, and it looks a lot more weathered.
Here is some more interesting boat history to add to this "mystery." It looks like Post Yachts (www.postyacht.com), founded by Russell Post in 1957, is still producing boats in this location. During WWII, Post worked for Ventnor Boat Works in Atlantic City, which built rescue and supply boats for the government. After the war, he and Charley Leeks co-founded one of the best-known sportfisherman companies, Egg Harbor Yachts. In 1956 Post sold the company, "retired" for a year, and then built his own yacht factory in Mays Landing. He ran Post Yachts for another 20 years, then sold the business and the brand. In 2011, after the Great Recession, the Post facility declared bankruptcy, and apparently the molds and boat building operation moved to Worton Creek, where the mystery boat was sitting. Check it out on Google Earth.
Here's some more history of Russell Post and other boat builders of his post-war generation...
captkarlanderson.com/uncategorized/the-boat-builders-of-south-jersey/
And finally, the connection to Phil Bolger, whose first published design was a 32-foot sportfisherman in 1952 and designed for Egg Harbor Yachts...
www.yachtingmagazine.com/jersey-boys/
More details on Phil Bolger, his boat design apprenticeships, and his connection to the Jersey Boys is here, www.duckworksmagazine.com/03/r/vintage/nquarterly/phil/bolger.htm.
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