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PT305 - Take a ride back in time!


silverplate
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silverplate

The National WWII Museum in New Orleans recently re-launched a Higgins-built, combat veteran PT boat after an extensive 10 year restoration. PT305 was built right there in New Orleans in 1943, then spent the next 2 years in the ETO. She was credited with sinking several enemy vessels, then was returned to the states for refit prior to redeployment to the Pacific. The end of the war actually saved the PT305, since most of the PTs that were overseas were scrapped in place.

 

Like most of you reading this, I have family members who served in the Navy, and we grew up watching "They Were Expendable", "PT-109", and "McHale's Navy". I often wondered what it would like to hear the rumble of those Allison engines while flying along the water's surface. A ride on a PT boat was on my bucket list for years. And now, since her re-launch in April 2017, PT305 has made it possible.

 

This past May, on a sunny Saturday, I was sitting on the deck of a PT boat as the engines were started. I spent an hour with 16 other PT boat lovers skimming over the surface of Lake Pontchartrain at 25+ knots, tracing much of the same path that PT305 followed on her shake-down cruise in 1943. To say that it was worth every penny of the $350.00 ticket would be an understatement. Here are a few photos that I thought I would share. Enjoy!

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silverplate

Last one. I wish I could post my 1 minute video from the ride. A good set of speakers can come close to how it sounds, but not how it feels. This is the ultimate cruise ship! McHale would be proud.

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huntssurplus

Very cool! Hopefully one day in the near future ill be able to take a trip down to New Orleans to visit the mueseum.

 

Hunt,

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silverplate

At the present time, the Coast Guard will not let the public below decks due to safety concerns with the ladders. However, one of the crew was gracious enough to take my phone below after we returned from our ride. Here is a small sample of how much attention to detail went into the restoration.

 

Topside, cockpit area.

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silverplate

Amazing attention to details. Even the weapons have slings and magazines. That small arms rack has 2 Springfields, 2 Thompsons and 2 Carbines.

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silverplate

Engine room has 3 V12 Packard Allison aircraft engines, each capable of 1200 hp. The tall handles sticking up are the transmission levers. A crewman in the compartment manually shifted the engines into forward or reverse with them. The nickname "Sudden Jerk" that this boat carried came from that action.

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silverplate

The WWII museum built a new boathouse for the PT305. All in all. a class act from an awesome museum. That ride ranks right up there with my ride in a P-51!

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aerialbridge

Great photos and thanks for sharing your E-ride! Cool that the Higgins boat is back home in N'awlins and racing around Lake Pontchartrain. More fun than tubing on the Tangipahoa.

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I've been able to crawl all through the inside of a PT boat (PT Joe at anchor) and it is a head thumping experience. I stood between those engines and tried to imagine what hell it was to be in that space in the tropics, engines running at full bore. Now a topside ride under power: that for sure beats banging heads down below.

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RustyCanteen

I've been able to crawl all through the inside of a PT boat (PT Joe at anchor) and it is a head thumping experience. I stood between those engines and tried to imagine what hell it was to be in that space in the tropics, engines running at full bore. Now a topside ride under power: that for sure beats banging heads down below.

 

 

While I was looking at the photos, it reminded me of how it must not have been too much better 30 years later on the PCF 'Swift' boats in Vietnam. What ever happened to that one (ex-Malta PCF) you posted that was in San Diego?

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I should add that having been aboard what was then a 45 year old PT boat that still floated but eventually died of neglect, makes it all that more special to see one getting proper treatment. They Were Expendable has always been a favorite film and a few years back I found the grouping of one of the crewman in Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3

during the fall of the Philippines.

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Rakkasan187

Great pictures and glad that you were able to fulfill a bucket list wish...

 

I always said that I was born too late and if I had to, during WW2 I would have signed up for PT boats.. Growing up in New England, not too far from Melville and the PT boat school and the JFK connection... I would have chosen PT's over paratroops...

 

Leigh

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​Beautiful restoration.....what a great ride that must've been. Thanks for posting! Hope you share your next adventure.

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silverplate

I recall about 12 years ago being on a cruise ship that stopped in Key West. What caught my attention at the time was a shore excursion brochure for a ride on a PT boat. Unfortunately, my search for the boat proved futile as it had already been moved elsewhere. I was really bummed! Funny the things you remember....

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