This is because the 1st and only training facility for PT Boat skippers and crews was in Melville, RI part of the town Portsmouth, RI. The Higgins 76-footer (PT-70) completed the entire run but also suffered structural failures, attachments between planking and web frames pulling loose, and deck fastenings in the neighborhood of engine hatches showing extensive failures. She was reclassified as a harbor patrol boat (YP 110) for the duration of the war. Additionally, a few PT boats were equipped to carry naval mines launched from mine racks, but these were not commonly used. One such field modification was made to Kennedy's PT-109, which was equipped with a single-shot Army M3 37mm anti-tank gun that her crew had commandeered; they removed the wheels and lashed it to 2x8 timbers placed on the bow only one night before she was lost. Tempress Pro Casting Boat Seat 50 $11999 - $12499 Small Business +1 colors/patterns Tempress All Weather High Back Seat 84 $11899$129.99 FREE delivery Thu, Feb 16 Small Business Best Seller +10 colors/patterns Leader Accessories A Pair of New Low Back Folding Boat Seats (2 Seats) 889 $12999 FREE delivery Fri, Feb 17 Or fastest delivery Wed, Feb 15 Common to all US PT boats were the two twin M2 .50 cal (12.7mm) machine guns. PT-617's specifications are: Length:80 feet Beam:19 feet 11 inches Draught:4 feet Crew:2 officers and 9 crewmen Displacement:51 tons fully loaded Max Speed: 41kts (46mph) Fuel Capacity:3,000 gallons of 100 octane avgas Range:358 miles at 35kts, 1050 miles on one engine, 11 knots Oil Capacity:30 gallons Armament: 4 21" Torpedoes PT Boats, or Patrol Torpedo Boats, were a secondary element in World War 2 navies, but an essential one. In June 1945 the squadron was shipped to the U.S. for refitting and transfer to the Pacific, but the war ended while still in New York. PT-9 was to serve as the prototype for all the early Elco PT boats. As a result, the Navy ordered further investigation and refinement of the existing designs until a satisfactory working design could be obtained. In April 1941, MTBRON1 reported enthusiasm over the 81-foot Higgins (PT-6), and with the Higgins showing such good seakeeping further purchase of Scott-Paine boats was unnecessary. As an Interior Designer with over five years of experience visualizing, conceptualizing, and building up design plans as per client goals. Cost to the Government fully equipped $263,500. A Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) PT Boat Conference convened in May 1941 to discuss future PT characteristics. PT-724, a surviving Vosper built at the Annapolis Boat yard in Maryland, has been used as a yacht, and has since been acquired by the Liberty Aviation Museum to be restored back to original Vosper configuration. Huckins reported a profit of $28.60 on this transaction.[7]. Starting in mid-1943, the installation of this gun had an immediate positive effect on the firepower available from a PT boat. The population was thrust willingly into a role of background support for the troops fighting overseas. The vessel was sold in 1952 to Otto Stocker who operated the "Sightseer" as an excursion vessel from Otten's Harbor in Wildwood, New Jersey. Lieutenant Kennedy was the first commanding officer of PT-59 after its conversion. This was done in thin material, easy to cut. Unlike the actual "planing hull" Huckins, which planed at 10-11 knots, the Elco and Higgins PT boats were intended to plane at higher speeds (PT 71 and PT-103 classes at around 27 knots, and the PT-265 and 625 classes at around 23 knots). PT-308 (Higgins) had her stern sheared off by a collision with PT-304 during a night mission in the Mediterranean on 9 March 1945 and yet returned to base for repairs. With its stylish look, cold molded cabins, reverse S bend stem, it was one of the first successful . During the war, Elco came up with stepped hull designs ("ElcoPlane") which achieved significant increase in top speed. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. This conference, including representatives from BuShips, BuOrd, MTBRONs, Interior Control Board, and CNO, recommended a series of comparative tests to evaluate what turned out to be five new designs of motor torpedo boats. There PT-728 allows up to 49 tourists the chance to ride on a "PT boat". In early July 1941, the Navy accepted PT-69. PT-305 was cut down to 65 feet (20m) for use as an oyster seed boat in Crisfield, Maryland. Control 2 channels. In an important note after winning the design competition for the smaller PT boat, George Crouch wrote that Hickman's Sea Sled design would be far superior "in either rough or smooth water to that of the best possible V-bottom or hard chine design". Charles Schumann in the 1980s. "), was named in honor of Frank Sinatra, with whom the boats' Commanding Officer met at a nightclub shortly before MTBRON 22 left New York for the Mediterranean Theatre. You are interested in: Pt boats interior photos. PT-766 is an 80-foot (24m) Elco boat that is a private yacht ("Finished Business") located in Washington D.C. She represents the final class of Elco's with significant updates to the superstructure and radar and was intended for MTBRON 44, but was cancelled due to the end of the war. These beasts will propel the 50 ton boat at speeds up to 50 knots. Although not used in any other PT boat design, Huckins licensed the use of his patented Quadraconic hull in his PT boat construction. As PT boats were usually located near the end of the supply chain, their crews proved resourceful in bartering with nearby ships or military units for supplies and using munitions to harvest their own fish. If you are in doubt as to the purpose or usage of a piece of equipment, don't hesitate to ask. Cost to the Government fully equipped $756,400. PT-615 was returned to Elco after being sold and was heavily modified into a yacht, which was leased to actor Clark Gable. The 5M-2500 introduced in late 1945 had a larger supercharger, aftercooler, and increased power output of 1,850hp (1,380kW). Beam 22in, Engine Electric. [36] It was relaunched in March 2017,[37] and the museum is booking rides on Lake Pontchartrain on Saturdays, or static tours other days of the week.[38]. Perhaps the most effective use of PTs was as "barge busters." By class, PT-20, an Elco 77-footer, came in first with an average speed of 39.72kn (73.56km/h; 45.71mph); followed by PT-31, with an average speed of 37.01kn (68.54km/h; 42.59mph); PT-69, the Huckins 72-foot (22m) boat, was third with an average speed of 33.83kn (62.65km/h; 38.93mph);[note 2] PT-6, the Higgins 81-footer, with an average speed of 31.4kn (58.2km/h; 36.1mph) was fifth; and PT-8, the Philadelphia Navy Yard boat, was last, at 30.75kn (56.95km/h; 35.39mph). Those are:[9]. 153 Navy Pt Boat Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Editorial Video Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 153 Navy Pt Boat Premium High Res Photos Browse 153 navy pt boat stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Wood Boats. Maneuverability satisfactory with a turning circle of 368 yards. [23] Enemy forces would use searchlights or seaplane-dropped flares to illuminate fleeing PT boats. Two twin .50-inch (12.7mm) M2 Browning heavy machine guns were mounted for anti-aircraft defense and general fire support. 70 cm. The Canadian Power Boat Company produced four Scott-Paine designed PTs for the U.S. After the war, the ex-PT459 was cut down to 65ft (20m) and highly modified into a sightseeing boat and fishing trawler. USN ELCO PT Boat Deck Deck Ventilator duct (three per PT Boat) have their interior Damper Door as separate parts to glue them opened or closed. JKF was then a young Navy lieutenant, commanding the now famous PT 109, which as PT boats go, was something of a heap. The PT boat was very different from the first generation of torpedo boat, which had been developed at the end of the 19th century and featured a displacement hull form. Huckins ended up building just two squadrons of PT boats during World War II. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, W. Albert Hickman devised the first procedures and tactics for employing fast maneuverable seaworthy torpedo motorboats against capital ships, and presented his proposal to Rear Admiral David W. Taylor, the Chief of the US Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair. PT-657, a Higgins 78-foot (24m) boat, has been converted into a charter fishing boat. XT Innovations in Bucyrus Ohio, redid the beautiful pleated pattern and embroidered the Pantera logo on the seatbacks. After the war, American military interviews with captured veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy, supplemented by the available partial Japanese war records, were unable to verify that all the PT boat sinking claims were valid. In the August 1943 engagement in which PT-109 was lost, fifteen boats shipping 60 torpedoes fired over half without a single one hitting an enemy vessel. At the same time, Henry R. Sutphen of Electric Launch Company (Elco) and his designers (Irwin Chase, Bill Fleming, and Glenville Tremaine) visited the United Kingdom in February 1939 at the Navy's request to see British motor torpedo boat designs with a view to obtaining one that could be used as a check on the Navy's efforts. Along with PT-557, the vessel was purchased from BFM Industries (Brooklyn, NY) by Capt. The Admiralty found it interesting but thought that "no fast boat of 50' to 60' PT boats offered accommodation for three officers and 14 enlisted men. USN ELCO PT Boat Deck Stern Chocks (x2 per PT Boat). 58 footers Prototypes. As more PTs were fitted with dependable radar, they developed superior night-fighting tactics and used them to locate and destroy many enemy targets. The 4M-2500 initially generated 1,200hp (890kW). In March 1941, during a heavy weather run from Key West to New York by Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2 (MTBRON2), Elco 70-footers pounded heavily in 8-to-10-foot (2.4 to 3.0m) waves even at moderate speeds, and seas continuously broke high over the bows. The Higgins 70' (British) boat did not complete this run because of engine trouble. FineScale Modeler reviews the 1/72 scale plastic model PT boat kit. During World War II, PT boats engaged enemy warships, transports, tankers, barges, and sampans. Ronald G. Sinn, who in 2012 sold the boat to "Fleet Obsolete" of Kingston NY. [9], Boats would have their tactical parameters of each design determined by photographs from an airship. PT-105, an 80' Elco boat, under way. (Here are selected photos on this topic, but full relevance is not guaranteed.) Occasionally, some front line PT boats received ad hoc up-fits at forward bases, where they mounted such weapons as 37mm aircraft cannons, rocket launchers, or mortars. The performance specification was to achieve 40 knots with an operating radius of 275 miles at top speed (550 miles at cruising speed). From a design standpoint, boats are more challenging to design than . Ron 22 was part of Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France on August 15, 1944. This 72-foot (22m) boat (designated MT-72) later became PT-69. The original 196266 McHale's Navy TV series used a Vosper design PT-694[49] These torpedoes were carried on lightweight Mark 1 roll-off style torpedo launching racks. The boatyards were located in Annapolis, Bristol, City Island, Miami, and Los Angeles. PT 617 was built too late to serve in WWII. Over 200 photographs, 236 pages, 8 3/4" x 11 1/4" format, and drawings of profiles and deck plans. PT-728 was acquired by Fleet Obsolete and moved to Kingston. [3] In the summer of 1915, Lieutenants Hampden, Bremner, and Anson approached John I. Thornycroft & Company about developing a small high speed torpedo boat, and this effort eventually led to the Coastal Motor Boat which first went into service in April 1916. The last of her type to be constructed, she was nicknamed Tail Ender. Seventy years ago, on 21 April 1944, PT-305 arrived in the Mediterranean. The 85-foot-long Mk VIs, which displace around 72 tons, have a main armament of two M242 Bushmaster cannons, the same gun found on the U.S. Army's Bradley Fighting Vehicles, in a pair of. On 2 November 1943, PT-59 participated in the rescue of 40 to 50 Marines from Choiseul Island and a foundering landing craft (LCP(R)) which was under fire from Japanese soldiers on the beach.[19]. She was launched launched on 16 August 1939 and completed 20 November 1941, tested by the navay but rejected, and nicknamed "Wet Dream". Frank P. Huckins and his innovative Quadraconic planing hull design were latecomers to PT boat design. In 1942, the scheme initially applied to the Elco 80 footers utilized Navy Gray (#5) and Dark Gray (5-D) The bottom paint for all of these schemes was Copperoyd. Maneuverability satisfactory except for a large turning circle of 432 yards (395m). They each had butterfly flap valves fitted in the main exhaust pipes after the muffler take off which were operated by a lever system to allow straight through exhaust at speed or to direct the exhaust down through the mufflers to silence the boat at low speed. Her external restoration was completed by the Texas group in 2002, and is to a high standard. Other paints were used as well, and as soon as I find their nomenclature and corresponding numbers, I will post them here. Check back soon for further detailed videos about starting up the engines and other operational details. Originally conceived as anti-ship weapons, PT boats were publicly credited with sinking several Japanese warships during the period between December 1941 and the fall of the Philippines in May 1942[23] even though the Navy knew the claims were all false. In the Solomon Islands in 1943, three 77-foot (23m) PT boats, PT-59, PT-60, and PT-61, were converted into "PT gunboats" by stripping them of all original armament except the two twin .50 cal (12.7mm) gun mounts, then adding two 40mm and four twin .50 cal (12.7mm) mounts. Earlier when Sea Sleds were specifically excluded, Crouch had informed the Bureau of Ships that the Sea Sled was the best type of vessel for the job. PT658 - Virtual Boat Tour PT658 VIRTUAL TOUR SEE - HOW TO USE - BENEATH THE TOUR WINDOW: This virtual tour was created and supplied by: Visiting Media, Portland, OR - (503) 427-9786 or visit their website: visitingmedia.com Coincidentally, the PT-309 ("Oh Frankie! [5] The use of PT boat torpedoes was ineffective against these sometimes heavily armed barges, since the minimum depth setting of the torpedo was about 10 feet (3 m) and the barges drew only 5 feet (1.5 m). Very little tendency to pound in a seaway. Of the Elco boats, only three hulls (one restored) were known to exist as of 2016. The effectiveness of PT boats in the Solomon Islands campaign, where there were numerous engagements between PTs and capital ships, as well as against Japanese shipborne resupply efforts dubbed "The Tokyo Express" operating in New Georgia Sound (called "The Slot" by the Americans), was substantially undermined by defective Mark 8 torpedoes. Boat Decor. This Squadron saw action in the Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal, and Funafuti. This is only a few miles from the much larger Newport, Naval Station also in Rhode Island best known for the Naval War College and the site of . In April 1943, 25-year-old John F. Kennedy arrived in the Pacific and took command of the PT-109. The Rear Mufflers. He named the boat Tarbaby VI, and used her through the 1950s. She was acquired by Fleet Obsolete in June 2008 and moved to Kingston, New York, for possible restoration. They were all to be approximately 50 tons, made of mahogany, and carry two .50-cal. Forward of the chart house of some early Elco 77-foot (23m) boats (PT20 through PT44) were twin .30 cal (7.62mm) Lewis machine guns on pedestal mounts. Acid-resisting black Copperoyd bottom paint Canvas preservative dyes (blue, gray or green) Deck Blue (20-B) Deck Green (20-G) Propulsion was via a trio of Packard 4M-2500 and later 5M-2500 supercharged gasoline-fueled, liquid-cooled V-12 marine engines. This article is about US Navy patrol torpedo boats in World War II. For other similar vessels, see, United States naval ship classes of World War II, Board of Inspection and Survey's findings. In my humble opinion US PT-Boats and crews operating before and during WWII around Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and many other Pacific island groups, did more damage to the Japanese military supply chain than anything else to save Australia from probable invasion and there is almost zero history of those events recorded The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet". Boat ID: 36552. The Navy would provide engines, and Huckins would build a PT boat at their own expense, with the caveat that the boat (upon completion) would be offered to the Navy for a later sum. Boats from Ron 22 participated in the Invasion of Elba on June 18, 1944, where PT-305 sank a German Flak lighter. PT-796's specifications are: Length: 78 feet Beam: 20 feet 8 inches Draught: 4 feet Crew: Two officers and nine crewmen Displacement: 43 tons empty, 48 tons fully loaded Max Speed: 41 knots (46mph) Fuel Capacity: 3,000 gallons of 100 octane avgas Range: 358 miles at 35 knots, 1050 miles on one engine, 11 knots The exaggerated claims by Bulkeley about the effectiveness of the PTs in combat against larger craft allowed him to recruit top talent, raise war bonds, and caused overconfidence among squadron commanders who continued to pit PTs against larger craft. After having demonstrated its value on board PT boats, the M4 (and later M9) cannon was installed at the factory. In 1922, the US Navy reconsidered using small internal combustion engine powered torpedo boats.
