MARIE: A Converted WWII Landing Craft (C-LCVP)
(Source image: File:LCVP-1.gif – Wikipedia )
The MARIE (253,652), a converted WWII Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel (LCVP).
Built in 1943 by Chris Craft, in Algonac, Michigan, and powered by a Gray marine diesel engine as (LCVP 23127).
The LCVP, designed for WWII Military Service as a troop transport, Andrew Jackson Higgins invented (aka, an American Oil Screw or Higgin’s Boat). Over 23,000 LCVP craft were created most by Higgins Industries in New Orleans; and approximately 8,000 built by Chris Craft in MI, including the MARIE, (C-LCVP 23127).
THE BOATS THAT WON WWII:
“If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
In his book Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II, the historian Jerry E. Strahan recounts the boatbuilding mania under the ‘Higgins’ name that launched into service to make possible amphibious landings in all European and Pacific theaters of war.
The LCVP, also known by other names such as the “Higgins Boat,“ “Wooden Wonder”, and after taking part in the Normandy beach landings as well as every theater in WWII, as “The boat that won the war” after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in an 1964 interview said, “Andrew Higgins is the man who won the war for us.” And President Eisenhower went on to exp “If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach.”
POST WWII:
The MARIE transferred from government into civilian systems at the Port of Los Angeles on September 4, 1947. As a veteran (ex. C-23127), the MARIE’s title changed between numerous owners before being converted and remeasured (From its original 36ft to 42.5ft), in 1956.
Later, the MARIE was overhauled when Mr. Dowse took ownership of her in 1958, before her disappearance in 1960.
“An owner had converted it to a more sporting type of boat by extending the front part or bow of the boat forward and bringing it to a point and making something of a more sport fishing type boat of it,” Richard W. Dowse said, US District Court, Los Angeles, Tuesday, May 28, 1963.
May 31, 1960, and June 7, 1960, the MARIE, along with a scuba diving crew, gear, and a captain, were hired by Raytheon from a local sporting goods store, McCaffrey Brothers Sporting Goods, as a transport vessel for a Raytheon-related project team and its equipment. The vessel was a transport to the waters off Santa Cruz Island.
WAS THE MARIE LOCATED:
Perhaps two divers located the MARIE in 1969? Reported to the Santa Barbara News-Press that abalone and urchin divers had stumbled onto the MARIE; however, these divers made no attempt to prove the discovery officially. These divers observed that it looked like the craft had exploded. Portions of the wreckage that they salvaged included portions of the rudders and keel – The divers reported that they found the wreckage 2.5 miles from the shoreward side of Santa Cruz Island and 1.5 miles east of Painted Cave… at rest in 55ft of water. Again, this sighting has yet to be confirmed. (Source: BELIEVED TO BE ‘MARIE’ – Wreckage of Boat Found Off Island, Santa Barbara News-Press, 6-Nov-1969)
MARIE LEGACY & THE COLD WAR:
| “I consider these men as being as worthy of hero stature as the pilot of the U-2 planes because even though they did not know that their lives were in danger, they did die while undertaking a project to help ensure the safety of the free world.” |
| Markham Field MacLin, SB News-Press, 17 June 1960 |
The MARIE and its Raytheon-related project team disappeared serving an effort during a HOT time in the COLD WAR; yet, after years . . . we know so little.
Join me on this journey in the revelation of the … MARIE EVENT’s Legacy!
PS: As you read the Mystery of the Marie: Memoir of How My Childhood Tragedy Surfaced a Cold War Secret, you will discover what seemed like a divine revelation when I realized that the name Marie is the name of a C-LCVP vessel that disappeared along with my father, Marie is also the first name of my father’s mother and my Grandmother, and Marie, at birth my given middle name.
Source:
Mystery of the Marie: Memoir of how my Childhood Tragedy Surfaced a Cold War Secret, 60th Anniversary Extended Edition, TNTpress, 2022.
Andrew Jackson Higgins And The Boats That Won World War II, Jerry E. Strahan, 1994.
The Boat That Won The War – An Illustrated History of the Higgins LCBP, Charles C. Roberts, Jr., Seaforth Publishing, 2017.
D-Day – The Story of the Greatest Military Operation in History, History WAR 80th Anniversary Special, Published by A360Media, 2024.
LCVP Image: File:LCVP-1.gif – Wikipedia https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/LCVP-1.gif
LCVP Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Darke_APA-159_-_LCVP_18.jpg
LCVP Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCVP_(United_States)
President Eisenhower and the LCVP: https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/ww2/projects/fighting-vehicles/higgins-boat.htm#:~:text=-President%20Dwight%20D.%20Eisenhower,%201964
The National U.S. Army Museum, Ft. Belvoir, VA, Global War, 1919-1945
The Global War Gallery portrays the Army’s role in the Allied victory during World War II. Visitors learn about the European and Pacific Theaters, technology, the Army’s air war, and the development of the atomic bomb. Key artifacts include the M4 Sherman “Cobra King” Tank and a Landing Craft, Vehicle, and Personnel (LCVP).
BELIEVED TO BE ‘MARIE’ – Wreckage of Boat Found Off Island, Santa Barbara News-Press, 6-Nov-1969.
Gray Marine Boat Engine, like that on the Marie’s in Action:
MARIE REMEMBERED, https://vimeo.com/428533239 Rare footage of the MARIE on a fishing trip with two men lost on it June 1960, Diego Terres Jr. and his friends including Dale Howell, Documentary (19min, see 7:33-8:03 min): https://vimeo.com/428533239?share=copy
Marie Event Remembered:
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