The Maritime Museum of San Diego Museum ship collection includes four vessels of historic distinction on the National Register; PCF 816 Swift Boat, 1914 Pilot boat, the world’s oldest active sailing ship Star of India, and the 1898 steam ferry boat Berkeley – listed as National Historic Landmarks.

PCF 816 is a tangible reminder of the service and dedication of so many Swift Boat sailors and allows visitors the opportunity to better understand what they sacrificed.

The Swift Boat Sailors Association brought the PCF 816 Swift Boat to the Maritime Museum of San Diego to be restored and operated on San Diego Bay.

Prior to the pandemic, these Naval History Bay tours were one of the most popular on-the-water experiences the Museum offered to visitors.

Unique to this experience is the retired Swift Boat Sailors and docents who talk about what it was like to be a crewman in Vietnam, serving as a Quartermaster, Gunner’s Mate, Engineman, Radarman, Bosun’s Mate or Skipper.

The Navy first used the PCF 816 Swift boats on coastal patrol as a part of Operation Market Time to interdict seaborne supplies on their way to the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army in South Vietnam. Later, the boats moved into the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta and the Ca Mau peninsula to conduct special operations: gunfire support, troop insertion and evacuation, and raids into enemy territory. To the U.S. Navy, Swift Boats were weapons of war.

The notice of the National Register of Historic Places announcement was presented to Maritime Museum of San Diego by the Department of Parks and Recreation Office of Historic Preservation on July 27, 2018. The honor includes PCF 816 Swift Boat in the official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation.