Patrol boats have played a significant role in America’s military history. Used by both the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard, these small boats were valued for their ability to move quickly along coastlines and through brown water rivers. Used for scouting, cutting enemy supply lines, transporting troops to and from shore, and more, PT boat duty was known to be dangerous, but those who served on them between the 1930s and 1980s were unaware of the boats’ greatest risks: many patrol boat parts were made with asbestos, exposing them to the risk of being diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.
About Patrol Boats
Also known as torpedo boats, patrol boats are small, fast vessels that were used through both World Wars and the Vietnam War by the U.S. Navy and by the U.S. Coast Guard throughout much of its history. The ships were useful during peacetime for rescue purposes and during war for reconnaissance, supply and transport missions, and coastal defense.[1]
Patrol vessels were known for “punching above their weight” during military conflict. Used for troop insertion, surveillance, as submarine chasers, and more, they had the additional advantage of being quick to manufacture and inexpensive enough to be considered expendable.
The Navy made use of several different types of patrol boats, including:
- Patrol Craft Coastal
- Hydrofoil Vessels
- Submarine Chasers
- Patrol Craft Escort
- Patrol Craft Rescue Escort
- Patrol Craft Sweeper
- Eagle-Class Patrol Craft
- Patrol Frigate
- Patrol Gunboat
- Motor Gunboat
- River Gunboat
- Patrol Torpedo Boat
- Patrol Yacht
- Coastal Patrol Yacht
- Submarine Chaser
Patrol Boats in World War II
During World War II, the Navy operated forty-three PT squadrons of 12 boats each. The boats themselves were the result of a design competition that the Navy sponsored in 1938. They invited small boat builders to create a highly mobile attack boat and awarded prizes to the winning designs. Approximately one dozen different boat manufacturers supplied the United States, Canada, and Great Britain with the boats, with most being provided by Elco Motor Yachts and Higgins Industries.[1]
The Navy didn’t standardize patrol boat design until near the war’s end, at which time there were two distinct boat types used: there were 399 of the 80-foot long Elco-designed boats and about 200 of the slightly smaller Higgins boats, which were integral to the Battle for the Aleutian Islands and the D-Day landings. In addition to the patrol boats provided to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard crews operated forty YP patrol vessels during the war for inshore and harbor patrol activities.[1]
The Most Famous PT Boat
Throughout the war, PT boats attacked enemy shore installations, accommodated troop landings, destroyed floating mines, sunk enemy shipping targets, destroyed enemy landing barges, rescued downed pilots, and attacked enemy island outposts. Perhaps the best-known patrol boat was PT-109, the boat manned by Lieutenant and later U.S. President John F. Kennedy in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific. Along with 14 other patrol boats, PT-109 ambushed four Japanese destroyers and supply ships, only to be struck by a destroyer at full speed. With his boat split in half, he and other survivors swam 3 miles to an island and were rescued days later by another patrol boat, PT-157.[1]
Patrol Boats After World War II
After the war’s end, most of the patrol boats were decommissioned or sold for other purposes, and this left the Navy without small boats suitable for counterinsurgency environments such as what was being encountered in Korea and Vietnam. Noting the challenges of these environments, the Naval Advisory Group published a staff study on their requirements that concluded that the Navy needed to return to patrol boats that were fast and could carry appropriate weaponry. After drawing up specifications, the Navy went to a boat builder located on the Gulf of Mexico who was making water taxis that serviced oil rigs. The Navy bought the rights to the company’s boat design, made modifications, and put the design out for a bid that was won by Sewart Seacraft. Over 100 of the boats were delivered between 1965 and 1966, 30 in 1968, and 33 between 1970 and 1972.[2]
The Cyclone class was the most recent patrol boat commissioned by the Navy. Built in the 1990s, these boats were used for surveillance, coastal patrol, and to support special operations in special waters but were decommissioned in 2023. Many naval experts are calling for the return of the patrol boat for use as an alternative platform at an affordable cost.[3]
Asbestos Use in U.S. Patrol Boats
Though patrol boats were far smaller than other ships used by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, they still made extensive use of asbestos-contaminated materials, particularly in their thermal insulation materials and asbestos-containing floor tiles. Asbestos was considered invaluable in protecting service members against heat and flame and had the added benefits of providing strength and durability at a low cost. With the military unaware that asbestos was carcinogenic, it is likely that the modifications they required to patrol boat design likely included fortification with the material, as a report commissioned by the government found that the war department had requested nearly 300 asbestos-containing materials for ship construction and repairs between the 1930s and 1980s. For the patrol boats, these materials included:
- Insulation
- Pipe lagging
- Boiler insulation and parts
- Pumps
- Valves
- Gaskets
- Ropes
- Fireproofing materials
- Asbestos gloves and blankets
- Deck matting, flooring material, tiles
Who Was at Risk of Asbestos Exposure from Patrol Boats?
Navy patrol boats were staffed by officers and sailors, and anybody who spent time on board was at risk of asbestos exposure. Those who were most likely to inhale the toxic fibers were the sailors who worked with the boats’ boilers or engines. Their work was generally done in tight spaces with little ventilation, making it far more likely that they inhaled asbestos fibers that were released during their work. Others at risk included:
- Employees of the companies that built the patrol boats
- Boiler workers
- Repair and maintenance workers
- Insulation installers
- Engine room workers
When asbestos-containing materials are damaged, worn down, or manipulated, they release microscopic fibers into the air. Once these fibers become airborne, they are easily inhaled or ingested, and once they enter the body, they are rarely expelled. The needle-edged particles that embed themselves in cells can cause irreparable damage: some cause scarring in the lungs that becomes the chronic and debilitating disease asbestosis or that develop into lung cancer, while those that land in the lining of the mesothelium can mutate into the deadly tumors of malignant mesothelioma. The Navy’s constant use of asbestos in its ships and boats was meant to protect sailors from harm, but because the material was so toxic, roughly one-third of all mesothelioma victims are veterans and the majority of those served in the Navy.
List of Patrol Boats That Contained Asbestos-Containing Materials
Almost all the patrol boats used by the Navy and Coast Guard during World War II and the Vietnam War contained asbestos-containing materials. They include:
- USS Abilene
- USS Ability (PYc-28)
- USS Abingdon
- USCGC Active (WPC-125)
- USS Adroit (AM-82)
- USS Advent
- USS Alabaster
- US FWS Albatross III
- USCGC Alert (WMEC-127)
- USCGC Alexander Hamilton
- USS Alexandria (PF-18)
- USS Amethyst
- USS Ampere
- USS Annoy
- USCGC Argo
- USS Argus (PY-14)
- USCGC Atalanta
- USCGC Aurora
- USS Beaufort (PCS-1387)
- USS Beaufort (PF-59)
- USCGC Bellefonte (WYP-373)
- USS Brownsville
- USS Brunswick (PF-68)
- USCGC Cahoone
- USS Carlinville
- USS Carnelian
- USS Casper
- USS Charleston (PG-51)
- USS Charlotte (PF-60)
- USS Conflict (AM-85)
- USS Constant (AM-86)
- USS Coral
- USS Corpus Christi (PF-44)
- USS Covington (PF-56)
- USCGC Crawford
- USS Creddock
- USCGC Cuyahoga
- USS Cythera (PY-26)
- USS Cythera (PY-31)
- USS Daring
- USS Dash (AM-88)
- USS Davenport
- USS De Grasse (ID-1217)
- USS Dearborn
- USS Despite
- USS Dipper
- USS Direct (AM-90)
- USS Dubuque (PG-17)
- USS Dutton (AGS-8)
- USS Dynamic (AM-91)
- USS Eagle 56
- USS Edithena
- USS Effective (AM-92)
- USS El Paso (PF-41)
- USS Emerald (PYc-1)
- USS Engage (AM-93)
- USS Excel (AM-94)
- USS Execute
- USS Exploit (AM-95)
- USS Facility
- USS Fidelity (AM-96)
- USS Fierce
- USS Firm (AM-98)
- USS Fixity
- USS Forsyth
- USS Garnet
- USS Gavia
- USCGC General Greene
- USS Grand Forks
- USS Grand Rapids (PF-31)
- USS Greensboro
- USRC Gresham
- USS Guinevere (IX-67)
- USS Gulfport (PF-20)
- USS Hampton (PCS-1386)
- US FWS Henry O’Malley
- USS Hingham
- US FWS Hugh M. Smith
- USS Huron (PF-19)
- USCGC Icarus
- USS Impetuous
- USCGC Ingham (WHEC-35)
- USS Isabel
- USS Isabel (SP-521)
- USS Jade
- USS Jasper
- MV Joyita
- USS Key West (PF-17)
- USS Knoxville
- USS Lamar (PCE-899)
- USS Lanikai
- USCGC Legare (WSC-144)
- USS Marcasite (PY-28)
- USCGC Marion
- USS Mayflower (PY-1)
- USCGC Mayflower (WPE-183)
- USCGC McLane
- USS McMinnville
- USS Menemsha
- USS Milledgeville (PF-94)
- USS Minah (AMc-204)
- USS Mindanao (PR-8)
- USS Moberly
- USS Monomoy
- USS Moonstone
- USCGC Morris
- USS Muskeget
- USS Natchez (PG-85)
- USS New Bedford (PF-71)
- USS Niagara (PG-52)
- USS Nourmahal
- USS Onyx (PYc-5)
- USS Opal
- USS Orange
- USS Orlando
- USS Paducah (PG-18)
- USS Panay (PR-5)
- USS Panther (IX-105)
- USS PC-465
- USS PC-470
- USS PC-472
- USS PC-496
- USS PC-509
- USS PC-542
- USS PC-552
- USS PC-558
- USS PC-565
- USS PC-568
- USS PC-586
- USS PC-598
- USS PC-815
- USS PC-817
- USS PC-1119
- USS PC-1129
- USS PC-1136
- USS PC-1137
- USS PC-1138
- USS PC-1140
- USS PC-1141
- USS PC-1142
- USS PC-1168
- USS PC-1179
- USS PC-1181
- USS PC-1189
- USS PC-1217
- USS PC-1255
- USS PC-1261
- USS PC-1264
- USS PC-1586
- USS PC-1587
- USS PC-1588
- USS PC-1589
- USS PC-1590
- USS PC-1591
- USS PC-1592
- USS PC-1593
- USS PC-1594
- USS PC-1595
- USS PC-1596
- USS PC-1597
- USS PC-1598
- USS PC-1599
- USS PC-1600
- USS PC-1601
- USS PC-1602
- USS PC-1603
- USS PCE(R)-852
- USS PCE(R)-853
- USS PCE-881
- USS PCE-884
- USS PCE-885
- USS PCE-891
- USS PCE-895
- USS PCE-897
- USS PCE-899
- USS PCE-901
- USS PCE-905
- USS PCE-906
- USS PCE-907
- USS PCE-908
- USS PCE-916
- USS PCE-917
- USS PCE-919
- USS PCS-1376
- USS PCS-1379
- USS PCS-1386
- USS PCS-1387
- USS PCS-1393
- USS PCS-1396
- USS PCS-1401
- USS PCS-1416
- USS PCS-1425
- USS PCS-1438
- USS PCS-1439
- USS PCS-1465
Do Navy Patrol Boats Still Contain Asbestos?
The Navy stopped using asbestos in its ships and boats in the late 1970s, and the last patrol boats that contained asbestos were the USS Grand Rapids, the USS Pegasus, and the USS Tucumcari, which were used in the Vietnam War and Grenada. The boats were largely decommissioned, and those that are still in use underwent asbestos abatement to remove the dangerous materials that they contained, but some may still pose a risk from legacy asbestos hidden in old equipment and insulation.
Veterans Exposed to Asbestos on Patrol Boats May be Eligible for Compensation
Though patrol boats were largely used during World War II, at least 100 of the vessels were built specifically for use in Vietnam, and many of those remained in use for years afterward. Any service member or civilian who worked onboard a patrol boat in Vietnam or who serviced or maintained the vessels has a high likelihood of having been exposed to asbestos and is at risk of being diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease.
If you are suffering from an asbestos-related disease after exposure on a Navy or Coast Guard patrol boat, an asbestos attorney will be your best resource for information about the compensation available to you. These lawyers have specialized knowledge about all of the companies involved in the inclusion of asbestos in the boats and of asbestos trust funds you may be eligible to submit claims to. Be sure to act quickly after diagnosis to ensure the statute of limitations doesn’t pass and prevent you from getting the justice that you deserve.
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