I photographed these Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel “Higgins Boat” examples at the FHC, Oshkosh and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
Called the Higgins Boat” after designer Andrew Jackson Higgins, there were 23,358 LCVP boats built by seven different boat manufacturers, and only 12 original LCVPs still remain. The one in New Orleans is one of just two known to have been built by Higgins Industries. I’ll have to see if the one at the FHC is the other.
The earlier Landing Craft Personnel (Large) was the first military design by Higgins, but did not have a ramp to allow vehicles to drive off the boat.
Identification numbers that would be painted on the sides at the bow usually started with the host ship followed by the sequential number of the boat. Using the boat in Oshkosh as an example, LCVP number three attached to LST (Landing Ship Tank) 325 would be numbered LST325-3. LCVPs served in the Navy in many capacities through the 1980s.