# PTF boat
A PTF boat (Patrol Torpedo Fast, also read as Fast Patrol Boat) was a small, fast [United States Navy](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-states-navy) combatant craft of the [Vietnam War](https://www.edgepedia.org/vietnam-war) era, created in 1964 when the Navy returned its PT boats to service under a new name and a new mission of coastal raiding, special operations support, and patrol in shallow water.[1](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1964/july/pt-boats-return) The type is most closely identified with the Norwegian-designed Nasty class, wooden-hulled 80-foot boats that the Navy bought from Norway and later copied under license in the United States.[2](https://foils.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Advanced-Naval-Vehicles-Concepts-Evaluation-Planing-Vehicle-Technical-Assessment71230.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Designation | PTF, for Patrol Torpedo Fast (Fast Patrol Boat); redesignated from PT in 1964 after a seven-year absence of PT boats from the fleet[1](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1964/july/pt-boats-return) |
| First eight boats | PTF-1 and PTF-2 were reactivated US-built aluminum hulls (ex-PT-810 and PT-811); PTF-3 through PTF-8 were new Norwegian-built wooden Nasty-class boats[3](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/ptf.htm) |
| Speed and power | Speeds in excess of 40 knots; the Nasty class is rated at 44 knots (81 km/h) on twin Napier-Deltic diesel engines developing 3,100 bhp each[3](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/ptf.htm) • [2](https://foils.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Advanced-Naval-Vehicles-Concepts-Evaluation-Planing-Vehicle-Technical-Assessment71230.pdf) |
| Armament | Two 20-mm and two 40-mm single mounts on the first eight boats; PTF-7 and PTF-8 later received 81-mm mortars[3](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/ptf.htm) |
| Nasty class dimensions | 80 ft 4 in (24.48 m) overall, full load displacement 85.5 tons, range 450 nautical miles at 38 knots, crew of 2 officers and 16 enlisted[2](https://foils.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Advanced-Naval-Vehicles-Concepts-Evaluation-Planing-Vehicle-Technical-Assessment71230.pdf) |
| Designer | Jan Herman Linge of Norway; prototype launched 1957, about 50 boats of the type built[4](https://snl.no/Jan_Herman_Linge) |
| Famous operation | Covert 34A raids against North Vietnam; a 31 July 1964 attack by four PTFs on Hon Me island preceded the Tonkin Gulf Incident[5](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1999/august/secret-side-tonkin-gulf-incident) |
| Combat losses | Only one boat lost to direct enemy action during the Vietnam War, PTF-9, hit by a homemade bomb dropped from a North Vietnamese bi-plane[6](https://www.mrfa.org/us-navy/south-vietnamese-navy/operation-34a-and-the-nasty-class-pt-boats/) |
## Origin of the designation
The Navy's PT boats had left service after World War II; the last five motor torpedo boats built during the war went to the Republic of Korea in January 1952, and only four prototype PTs were built in the 1950s.[7](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1973/may/small-combatants-1973) In 1962 a renewed need for a fast patrol boat led to the reactivation of two experimental postwar hulls, PT-810 (launched 2 June 1950 by [Bath Iron Works](https://www.edgepedia.org/bath-iron-works)) and PT-811 (launched 30 November 1950 by John Trumpy & Sons), which were rearmed as gunboats and redesignated PTF-1 and PTF-2.[7](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1973/may/small-combatants-1973) A July 1964 Proceedings article announced that the Navy's PT boats were back after a seven-year absence, with a new name and a new mission: stripped of their torpedo tubes and earmarked for special operations with the Navy's SEAL teams.[1](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1964/july/pt-boats-return)
Where World War II PT boats had been built for torpedo attacks on large ships, the PTFs were intended instead for shallow-water operation, patrolling coastlines and inland waterways, fighting guerrillas, and performing search and rescue missions.[1](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1964/july/pt-boats-return) Armed with 40-mm and 20-mm cannon, they relied on speed and stealth to compensate for their lack of protective armor and were suited to hit-and-run strikes under cover of darkness, with smoke generators aft for fast getaways.[1](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1964/july/pt-boats-return)
## The Nasty class
The boats that defined the PTF program came from Norway. The motor torpedo boat Nasty was designed by Jan Herman Linge, a Norwegian naval architect who had trained in England and the United States and worked at Båtservice A/S; the prototype took the water in 1957 and attracted attention at home and abroad, and about 50 vessels of the type were eventually built.[4](https://snl.no/Jan_Herman_Linge) The design was the basis for the [Royal Norwegian Navy](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-norwegian-navy)'s Tjeld class, and the United States bought the boats for unconventional operations, a purchase notable because the United States had never before bought military vessels from abroad.[4](https://snl.no/Jan_Herman_Linge) • [8](https://www.navypedia.org/ships/usa/us_sc_nasty.htm)
The 80-foot Nasty PTFs have a laminated wood hull, a fiberglass superstructure, and a vee bottom, powered by two Napier-Deltic T18-37K diesel engines, each developing 3,100 bhp at 2,100 rpm.[2](https://foils.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Advanced-Naval-Vehicles-Concepts-Evaluation-Planing-Vehicle-Technical-Assessment71230.pdf) [Performance](https://www.edgepedia.org/performance) figures from a NAVSHIPS publication give a speed of 44 knots (81 km/h) and a range of 450 nautical miles (830 km) at 38 knots, based on a 75-ton displacement.[2](https://foils.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Advanced-Naval-Vehicles-Concepts-Evaluation-Planing-Vehicle-Technical-Assessment71230.pdf) The boats were built for all-weather operation; one PTF officer described their endurance in rough seas by saying they could take much more of a beating than the crew.[1](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1964/july/pt-boats-return)
Armament is reported differently across sources. The GlobalSecurity account of the first eight boats lists two 20-mm and two 40-mm single mounts on each boat, with 81-mm mortars added later to PTF-7 and PTF-8.[3](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/ptf.htm) A Navy technical assessment lists one 40-mm battery, two 20-mm machine guns, and one 81-mm mortar with a .50-caliber adapter for the class,[2](https://foils.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Advanced-Naval-Vehicles-Concepts-Evaluation-Planing-Vehicle-Technical-Assessment71230.pdf) and a Mobile Riverine Force Association account states the PTF carried a single-barreled, not double-barreled, 40-mm cannon.[9](https://www.mrfa.org/us-navy/south-vietnamese-navy/coastal-raiders-3/)
## Service in Vietnam
In February 1964 the Navy established Boat Support Unit ONE under Naval Operations Support Group, Pacific, to operate the newly reinstated PTF program and high-speed craft in support of naval special warfare forces.[3](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/ptf.htm) Between March and June 1964, eight PTFs were delivered to the U.S. Naval Advisory Detachment at [Da Nang](https://www.edgepedia.org/da-nang) for use under the operational control of the Maritime Operations Section of MACSOG (Studies and Observations Group), the cover organization running covert operations against [North Vietnam](https://www.edgepedia.org/north-vietnam).[3](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/ptf.htm) U.S. Navy Mobile Support Team #1-64 trained approximately 145 Vietnamese Navy crew members, and maintenance and logistical support was provided by COMAVPHIL.[3](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/ptf.htm)
**Covert raids and the Tonkin Gulf.** The Nasty-class boats were purchased quietly from Norway to lend the illusion that the United States was not involved in the maritime part of Operation 34A, a highly classified program of covert attacks against North Vietnam.[5](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1999/august/secret-side-tonkin-gulf-incident) On the night of 31 July 1964, four boats (PTF-2, PTF-3, PTF-5, and PTF-6) left Da Nang and raced north toward the demilitarized zone to attack the offshore islands of Hon Me and Hon Nieu.[5](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1999/august/secret-side-tonkin-gulf-incident) The PTF restoration history records that during raids from 31 July to 4 August 1964 on Hon Me, North Vietnamese torpedo boats counterattacked, chasing the PTFs away from the coast and into the path of the destroyer USS Maddox in the engagement of 2 August 1964, in which USS Turner Joy was not present; the ensuing naval battle is known as the Tonkin Gulf Incident.[10](https://www.ptf3restoration.org/historyofptf3.html) • [14](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/tonkin-gulf-resolution) A Navy history of the crisis states that Hanoi, whose navy had not been able to catch the fast PTFs, directed it to attack the slower American destroyer.[11](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/t/tonkin-gulf-crisis/tonkin-gulf-crisis-aug-1964.html)
**Later service.** In total, 16 Nasty boats saw service in Vietnam, and during the length of the war only one was lost to direct enemy action, when a North Vietnamese bi-plane dropped a homemade bomb that hit PTF-9 on the fantail and flooded the engine room.[6](https://www.mrfa.org/us-navy/south-vietnamese-navy/operation-34a-and-the-nasty-class-pt-boats/) Some boats were temporarily transferred to the [Republic of Vietnam Navy](https://www.edgepedia.org/republic-of-vietnam-navy); navypedia records PTF-3, PTF-5, PTF-6, and PTF-7 transferred in January 1966 and returned in 1970.[8](https://www.navypedia.org/ships/usa/us_sc_nasty.htm) The aluminum-hulled PTF-1 and PTF-2 served in Vietnam until 1 August 1965, when they were stricken for use as targets.[7](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1973/may/small-combatants-1973)
## Variants and successors
The Navy acquired 20 Norwegian Nasty-class PTFs, and after the first 14 entered service it built six more wood-hulled boats (PTF-17 through PTF-22) as virtual copies under license, constructed by John Trumpy of Annapolis, Maryland.[7](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1973/may/small-combatants-1973) • [12](https://www.n6cc.com/trumpy_ptf17/) A further enlargement came with the aluminum-hulled Osprey class, PTF-23 through PTF-26, completed in 1967 and 1968: 95 feet long, 15 feet longer than the Nasty, powered by the same Deltic diesels, and carrying the Nasty armament of one 40-mm mounting aft, an over-and-under .50-caliber machine gun and 81-mm mortar forward, and two single 20-mm guns.[7](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1973/may/small-combatants-1973)
The Proceedings 1973 review identified the functional successor to the PTF as the CPIC (Coastal Patrol and Interdiction Craft), an aluminum-hulled, gas-turbine-propelled craft, with the SWA (Shallow Water Attack) light and medium types and a Coastal Patrol ship also proposed for coastal warfare needs.[7](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1973/may/small-combatants-1973)
## Preservation
PTF-3, commissioned in 1962 as the first of the Nasty-class boats and nicknamed "Fast and Nasty" by her original crew, is described as the last remaining Nasty-class PTF. After wartime service that included hundreds of covert missions from Da Nang, she was used as a dive boat in [Key West](https://www.edgepedia.org/key-west), Florida, retired and sold for scrap in 1977, and later rescued from abandonment in [South Florida](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-florida); she is undergoing restoration as a museum boat at the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum in Florida.[13](https://delandnavalairmuseum.org/projects/ptf-3-fast-torpedo-boat/) • [10](https://www.ptf3restoration.org/historyofptf3.html)
## References
1. [PT Boats Return, Proceedings, July 1964, Vol. 90/7/737](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1964/july/pt-boats-return)
2. [80 ft PTF (Nasty Class) technical assessment, Advanced Naval Vehicles Concepts Evaluation](https://foils.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Advanced-Naval-Vehicles-Concepts-Evaluation-Planing-Vehicle-Technical-Assessment71230.pdf)
3. [Patrol Torpedo Fast (PTF), GlobalSecurity.org](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/ptf.htm)
4. [Jan Herman Linge – båtkonstruktør, Store norske leksikon](https://snl.no/Jan_Herman_Linge)
5. [The Secret Side of the Tonkin Gulf Incident, Naval History Magazine, August 1999](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1999/august/secret-side-tonkin-gulf-incident)
6. [Operation 34A and the Nasty Class PT Boats, Mobile Riverine Force Association](https://www.mrfa.org/us-navy/south-vietnamese-navy/operation-34a-and-the-nasty-class-pt-boats/)
7. [Small Combatants—1973, Proceedings, May 1973, Vol. 99/5/843](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1973/may/small-combatants-1973)
8. ["Nasty" patrol boats (PTF3) (1962–1969), Navypedia](https://www.navypedia.org/ships/usa/us_sc_nasty.htm)
9. [Coastal Raiders, Mobile Riverine Force Association](https://www.mrfa.org/us-navy/south-vietnamese-navy/coastal-raiders-3/)
10. [History of PTF 3, PTF 3 Restoration](https://www.ptf3restoration.org/historyofptf3.html)
11. [Tonkin Gulf Crisis, August 1966 – Summary, Naval History and Heritage Command](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/t/tonkin-gulf-crisis/tonkin-gulf-crisis-aug-1964.html)
12. [Fast Patrol Torpedo Boats / PTF-17, N6CC](https://www.n6cc.com/trumpy_ptf17/)
13. [PTF-3 Fast Torpedo Boat, DeLand Naval Air Station Museum](https://delandnavalairmuseum.org/projects/ptf-3-fast-torpedo-boat/)
14. [Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964)](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/tonkin-gulf-resolution)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Transport and spaceflight › Water transport › Warships and naval vessels › Small combatants and patrol craft*
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