Louisiana's Military Heritage:

     Higgins Industries, Inc.

Higgins Industries, Inc.

Higgins Industries was founded in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the 1930s, designing and building small shallow-draft boats for use by the oil and lumber industries in the marshes and wetlands of south Louisiana.  Nebraska-born Andrew Jackson Higgins, the company's owner and founder, was an innovative entrepreneur with a flair for showmanship.  He would often demonstrate his Eureka boat design to potential buyers by running the vessels up onto the concrete levee wall of Lake Pontchartrain and then reversing the engines to power it off and back into the water.  The 30-foot tall, red-and-white steel poles used as mile markers to clock his boats' speeds still stand along the lake shore today over sixty years later.  But it was his ability to think "out of the box" and to cut through bureaucratic red tape that made him such a resounding success during World War II.

Andrew Jackson Higgins, founder of Higgins

Industries, was recognized by General Dwight D. Eisenhower as "the man who won the war for us."

Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

PT-564, a Higgins-designed PT boat, was used as a

test-bed for equipment destined for boats in the

combat zone.  Photo courtesy of PT Boats, Inc.

In May of 1939, the U.S. Navy announced the awarding of contracts to three shipyards for the construction of six experimental design Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boats. One of these yards was Higgins Industries. Following difficulties with these experimental designs, Higgins designed and built a boat of his own for a series of competitions of new PT designs. From these "Plywood Derbies" as they were called, Higgins' design was one of three that would survive. During the course of World War II, Higgins Industries built one hundred ninety-nine 78-foot PT boats that saw service in World War II.

Higgins also designed the flat-bottomed, plywood LCVP (Landing Craft—Vehicle & Personnel), used to land infantry and armor on the beachheads. Informally known as "Higgins boats," these little craft were used in Allied invasions in the Mediterranean, northern France, and throughout the Pacific. It has been said by historian Stephen Ambrose that "more American fighting men went ashore in Higgins boats than in all other types of landing craft combined."  Additionally, Higgins Industries produced the larger LCPs, LCPLs, and LCMs.  Many of these amphibious craft of the "Waterbug Navy" as one admiral dubbed them were operated by the U.S. Coast Guard (which falls under the command of the U.S. Navy during time of war).  Together, this massive amphibious fleet allowed the Allied forces to invade without the need for a deep-water port in which to off-load troops.

Landing on the coast of France under heavy Nazi

machine gun fire are these American soldiers,

shown just leaving the ramp of a Coast Guard

landing boat.  Photo by CPhoM. Robert F. Sargent,

June 06, 1944.
Photo courtesy of National Archives.

The eight separate plants of Higgins Industries in

New Orleans produced over 20,000 wooden

boats for the Allies in World War II.

Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

By September of 1943, ninety-two percent of U.S. Navy vessels were of Higgins design (approximately 12,964 vessels).  Of these, 8,865 were built at Higgins Industries in New Orleans.  The company employed more than 20,000 workers—blacks and whites, men and women—all of whom were paid equal rates.  The company received the Army-Navy "E" (the highest award bestowed upon a civilian company) several times during World War II.  By war's end, Higgins had produced 20,094 boats and pioneered the compressed-air method of firing torpedoes.  The aircraft division of Higgins was tasked with the construction of 500 C-46 Commando transport aircraft, but only two were completed before the War Department cancelled the contract.  Higgins was also prepared to produce the two-seater EB-1 Rotoplane—an early helicopter design—before the post-war slump in production caused the plans to be shelved.

Andrew Jackson Higgins, his business, and his employees' contribution to the United States' war effort was so great that even Adolph Hitler was aware of Higgins, referring to him as "the new Noah."

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