Description

PTF BOAT (PATROL TORPEDO, FAST)

FULLY BUILT AND READY TO DISPLAY MUSEUM QUALITY SHIP MODEL

Dimension Approx.: 41″L x 15.5"W x 16.5″H
APPROX SCALE : 1/24
The model is already built, NOT a model ship kit

When the United States entered the shadowy, river‑choked battlefields of Vietnam, it needed a new kind of warship — something small, fast, heavily armed, and capable of slipping through the Mekong’s twisting waterways. The result was the PTF boat: Patrol Torpedo, Fast — a name inherited from World War II, even though these new craft carried no torpedoes. They were the spiritual successors to the famous PT boats of the Pacific, but built for a different kind of war.

After World War II, the U.S. Navy had little use for fast attack craft. Nearly all PT boats were scrapped, and none were needed in Korea. But by 1962, as American involvement in Vietnam deepened, the Navy realized it needed agile gunboats for covert missions, coastal raids, and riverine warfare.

Two forgotten Korean‑War prototypes were pulled from retirement and recommissioned as PTF‑1 and PTF‑2. As your document notes, “PTF‑1 and PTF‑2 were used by US Navy SEALs for special forces activity,” marking the beginning of a new era of clandestine maritime operations.

But these aging boats were only a stopgap. The Navy needed something faster, tougher, and more modern.

The answer came from an unlikely place: Norway. The Royal Norwegian Navy had developed a wooden‑hulled prototype, HNoMS Nasty, designed by Jan Herman Linge. Her performance impressed the U.S. Navy, which ordered a series of similar boats.

Between 1963 and 1965, fourteen Nasty‑class PTFs were delivered from Westermoen Båtbyggeri in Mandal. More followed from John Trumpy & Sons in Annapolis. These sleek, 80‑foot wooden boats were powered by Napier Deltic diesel engines, giving them blistering speeds of nearly 40 knots.

Armed with 40mm Bofors guns, 20mm cannon, .50‑caliber machine guns, mortars, and smoke generators, they were built for hit‑and‑run warfare.

PTFs arrived in Vietnam in 1964, operating from Da Nang and later throughout the Mekong Delta. Each carried a 12‑man crew, often including SEALs or special operations teams. Their missions were varied and dangerous:

Covert coastal raids
Landing and extraction of special forces
Supply drops and intelligence gathering
Harbor and base security
Rescue operations
Participation in Operation Game Warden (1965), patrolling rivers and canals

As your document notes, PTFs supported CSS Intelligence, Mobile Support Teams, and Boat Support Units, forming the backbone of early U.S. naval special warfare in Vietnam.

By the late 1960s, the Navy sought a more durable design. Sewart Seacraft (Swiftships) built four Osprey‑class PTFs with aluminum hulls and powerful 18‑cylinder Deltic engines. These 95‑foot boats were faster, stronger, and more adaptable.

Some, like PTF‑23, found second lives after the war — converted into research vessels, diving platforms, and treasure‑hunting ships.

Others met harsher fates: PTF‑24 and PTF‑25 were sunk as targets after years of service.

PTF operations were perilous. Six boats were lost during the war — most grounded on reefs during covert missions along the North Vietnamese coast. Their work was often unacknowledged, their missions classified, their crews operating in the shadows.

By 1971, PTF raids ceased. The boats were withdrawn to Subic Bay and assigned to MST‑3. Between 1972 and 1978, they were gradually retired, replaced by the more numerous Patrol Craft Fast (PCF) — the famous Swift Boats.

Today, only five PTFs survive, scattered across museums and restoration projects in the United States.

The PTF boats were never famous like their World War II predecessors, but they played a critical role in the early years of the Vietnam War. They were the Navy’s knife‑edge — fast, lightly armored, and deadly — operating in the murky world of coastal raids, river ambushes, and clandestine warfare.

Their story is one of innovation, improvisation, and courage — a reminder that even in the age of jets and missiles, small wooden boats could still shape the course of a conflict.

They were the last American gunboats to carry the proud “PT” lineage — and the first to fight in the shadows of the Cold War.