They’ve been working on the USS LCI 713, an infantry landing craft, for 14 years and hope to have the ship sailing before long — depending on money and parts.
They’re also keeping in touch with other ship restorers, aiming to start a working-model maritime museum between Portland-Vancouver and St. Helens. The museum has received $200,000 in cash donations as well as two grants from the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office for $20,000 and $11,500, said Rick Holmes, president of the Amphibious Forces Memorial Museum, the nonprofit that owns the LCI 713.
Maritime Heritage Coalition
What: An Oregon nonprofit corporation dedicated to promoting regional maritime, environmental and native people’s heritage. It hopes to build a regional maritime heritage center.
LCI 713 donations: Amphibious Forces Memorial Museum, LCI 713, P.O. Box 17220, Portland, OR 97220
LCI 713 volunteering: Rick Holmes, 509-427-5402; Gordon Smith, 360-256-5901; afmm@amphibiousforces.org
Museum organizers hope to include Portland’s fully restored World War II-era PT 658, the Oregon Maritime Museum’s sternwheeler Portland and other historic vessels. “We’ve met with these people and we’re making progress,” said Holmes.