PT boats

[bilko1]

Allways loved them since watching the movie pt109 ,Any info on how many are still peserved world wide?.

 

I know most of the far east fleet were torched

 

Cheers,

 

Dave.

[pathfinder505]

Allways loved them since watching the movie pt109 ,Any info on how many are still peserved world wide?.

 

I know most of the far east fleet were torched

 

Cheers,

 

Dave.

The University I went to had 2 PT boats donated to them by the government. I think probably through surplus property. They didnt have weapons and were stripped. We had a Biology center on the lake. I remember them just sitting there on the shore for years. Who knows, they may still be there.

[Bob Hudson]

PT 695 - aka PT Joe - may still be around. In the early 80's she was moored in the then-free anchorage off downtown San Diego, where I also anchored my boat. She was supposedly owned by a local criminal defense lawyer and had a live-aboard caretaker who was probably one of the lawyer's clients. I was young and stupid myself and spent a fair amount of time aboard PT Joe (it was the scene of many an impromptu party of urban pirates).

 

Two things impressed me: the lack of head room in the cabin and what hell it must have been to be in the engine room of a PT boat, especially in the tropics.

 

PT 695 was built by the US for the Russians but the war ended before she left the docks in Los Angeles.

 

This website has a pretty good history of her: http://www.warboats.org/ptjoe.htm

 

She supposedly was sold or given to the Sea Scouts who were going to restore her (after she sank in San Diego Bay and sat on the bottom for a while), but I can find no evidence of that actually happening.

 

[siege1863]

While training at Camp Shelby in Mississippi, a soldier in the 37th Infantry Division took a trip to New Orleans to see a Tulane vs Alabama football game and to see the sights. Among the snaps taken on this outing was this gem! The soldier captioned it: "Navy speed boats." They are of the dock at the Higgins Boat Company and show a pair of the first Higgins PT boats. The photo was taken November 8 or 9, 1941. The first Higgins PTs were not commissioned until 1942.

 

[Charlie Flick]

Any info on how many are still peserved world wide?. Dave.

 

Dave:

 

I don't know the answer to your question, but I would bet that the guys who restored the PT-658 in Oregon would know. They have completely renovated this boat, which was literally a wreck, and now it serves as a great memorial to all PT sailors. See the link: http://www.savetheptboatinc.com/index.htm

 

 

Charlie Flick

[dustin]

Many PT boats went to foriegn countries via lend lease and sold after the war but most boats were destroyed on purpose in NOV. 1945 by the US.PT boats 309,617,657,658,659,,695 still exist and I believe that is all.there were four others but three sunk in accidents in the 80's and one was cannibilzed for the restoration of 617.Many PT boats were lend lease to Russia and reports that some still exist there.from the naval fleet there were two fates of the PT's they were either burned or sold,about half were burned and half sold.A little under half of the PT's manufactured were under lend lease to britian and russia.

 

309-located admiral nimitz museum and historical center ,fredrickburg, TX.

617-located at battleship cove, fall river mass.

657-located san diego CA.

658-located portland OR.

659-located vancouver WA.

695-located rio vista CA.

[Hawk914]

Here's a site some of you may find interesting...

 

Defenders of America Naval Museum

 

It hasn't been updated in quite a while, but there's an extensive section of period photos. Here's a direct link to the photo page.

 

 

Fade to Black...

[disneydave]

Another military forum I belong to:

 

http://www.ptboats.org/

[gunbarrel]

Great link, Dave! A couple of years ago, a PT boat based in Key West was being auctioned on eBay. I'm not sure if this is the same one, but I would sure love to go for a ride on it:

 

http://www.pt728.com/home.html

 

I have a post card that you may find interesting:

[disneydave]

Love the postcard gunbarrel. I saw the auction for that boat when she was up for sale. Oh to be financially independent. One of these days I'll get down to Portland...it's only a few hours away.

 

I've interviewed many PT boat veterans. I have several hundred images that the vets sent to me for scanning after we spoke. At one point in time I was going to write a book about the PT boat service, as told through the recollections of the men who served aboard the ships.

 

I interviewed one fellow who served in the Mediterranean, another who was at Normandy at D-Day +4 and was later transferred to the South Pacific, one vet who was aboard a PT in the Aleutians and then operated a converted PT as a crash rescue boat and took part in the landings at Iwo Jima, and several vets who served in the South Pacific, including one who with two other PTs brought General MacArthur, the Philippine's President and Admiral Daniel Barbey, C.O. of the Seventh Amphibious Force, Seventh Fleet, to Tacloban where MacArthur made another "I have returned" speech on the steps of the municipal hall.

[mortaydc60]

Love the postcard gunbarrel. I saw the auction for that boat when she was up for sale. Oh to be financially independent. One of these days I'll get down to Portland...it's only a few hours away.

 

I've interviewed many PT boat veterans. I have several hundred images that the vets sent to me for scanning after we spoke. At one point in time I was going to write a book about the PT boat service, as told through the recollections of the men who served aboard the ships.

 

I interviewed one fellow who served in the Mediterranean, another who was at Normandy at D-Day +4 and was later transferred to the South Pacific, one vet who was aboard a PT in the Aleutians and then operated a converted PT as a crash rescue boat and took part in the landings at Iwo Jima, and several vets who served in the South Pacific, including one who with two other PTs brought General MacArthur, the Philippine's President and Admiral Daniel Barbey, C.O. of the Seventh Amphibious Force, Seventh Fleet, to Tacloban where MacArthur made another "I have returned" speech on the steps of the municipal hall.

 

 

Very good information.Believe there is a PT boat at the Buffalo N.Y. Naval yard along with the USS CROAKER,USS THE SULLIVANS and USS LITTLE ROCK. Mort

[Bob Hudson]

PT 695 - aka PT Joe - may still be around. In the early 80's she was moored in the then-free anchorage off downtown San Diego, where I also anchored my boat. She was supposedly owned by a local criminal defense lawyer and had a live-aboard caretaker who was probably one of the lawyer's clients. I was young and stupid myself and spent a fair amount of time aboard PT Joe (it was the scene of many an impromptu party of urban pirates).

 

Two things impressed me: the lack of head room in the cabin and what hell it must have been to be in the engine room of a PT boat, especially in the tropics.

 

PT 695 was built by the US for the Russians but the war ended before she left the docks in Los Angeles.

 

This website has a pretty good history of her: http://www.warboats.org/ptjoe.htm

 

She supposedly was sold or given to the Sea Scouts who were going to restore her (after she sank in San Diego Bay and sat on the bottom for a while), but I can find no evidence of that actually happening.

 

 

 

Another forum post tonight made me wonder about the fate of PT-695. aka PT JOE, sister boat to PT-694, which appeared in the opening scenes of McHale's Navy as PT-73. Supposedly Sea Scouts in Sacramento California were going to restore PT JOE, but sadly that was not the case and tonight I found this photos of her hulk half-sunk in a cove off the Sacramento River. These are from http://www.ptboats.org/cgi-local/sitenetbb...p;sc=20&x=0

 

 

 

 

I am glad I got to spend a lot of time aboard her before her last couple of owners let her die. Even though she never saw combat, there was just something totally cool about exploring a WWII PT boat at will. Sad to those pictures.

[AndrewA74]

Another forum post tonight made me wonder about the fate of PT-695. aka PT JOE, sister boat to PT-694, which appeared in the opening scenes of McHale's Navy as PT-73. Supposedly Sea Scouts in Sacramento California were going to restore PT JOE, but sadly that was not the case and tonight I found this photos of her hulk half-sunk in a cove off the Sacramento River. These are from http://www.ptboats.org/cgi-local/sitenetbb...p;sc=20&x=0

 

 

I am glad I got to spend a lot of time aboard her before her last couple of owners let her die. Even though she never saw combat, there was just something totally cool about exploring a WWII PT boat at will. Sad to those pictures.

Is there no way to save her? Contact a museum, rent a trailer and pull her out, something? This is sad.

Andrew

[Bob Hudson]

Is there no way to save her? Contact a museum, rent a trailer and pull her out, something? This is sad.

Andrew

 

That picture is four years old and I had read that she had been cut up - i.e. chainsawed into small pieces and hauled off to the dump. Even if she had not been hauled away, after four years underwater she'd be pulp. (:

 

Being aboard PT Joe gave me a real empathy for the guys who served on PT boats in the South Pacific: that engine room must have been hotter than hades and in fact any of the below decks spaces had to be terrible places in tropic heat, further complicated by the lack of headroom.

[disneydave]

I interviewed a Machinist's Mate who served in teh English Channel and then off the D-Day beachhead, before being transferred to the South Pacific. One thing that always bothered him was the noise of those three Packard engines. He said they had ear protection, but added of course they never used it and now suffer the consequences. His interview will be included in the veteran's recollections section of the forum...eventually.

[Bob Hudson]

I interviewed a Machinist's Mate who served in teh English Channel and then off the D-Day beachhead, before being transferred to the South Pacific. One thing that always bothered him was the noise of those three Packard engines. He said they had ear protection, but added of course they never used it and now suffer the consequences. His interview will be included in the veteran's recollections section of the forum...eventually.

 

As I recall they had a tractor seat between the engines: that in itself looked like a heckuva a way to sit out the war.

[disneydave]

I couldn't imagine trying to shift the gears while sitting down there and trying to hear what the skipper was saying through the blow-horn while those babies screamed at full speed - deafening! Here is a small part of my interview with John Howard Davis, a Motor Mac:

 

"I worked on Packard Marine engines. They were difficult to work on. They were originally built for airplanes and they were adapted. We didn’t have radiators so we ran salt water through what we called heat exchangers. That cooled the engines.

 

We had three engines. At that point they were about 1350 horse each. Later in the Pacific we got some with 1500 horsepower. They were noisy. Terrible. I didn’t wear earplugs so I’m paying for that now. You just learnt to sit back and watch all your gauges from about 10 feet away. As long as you could see the needles you knew where their proper places should be, so you didn’t have to be right beside them.

 

If the engine changed rpm’s we had to jump and check to make sure the skipper had done it and nothing had gone wrong. Space was an issue. You were so jammed together – there were two spark plugs for every cylinder, a supercharger, about 7:1 ratio, that was a big whine. One of the PT’s we were around stateside, the super charger broke the shaft and went through the side of the boat. Fortunately the Engineer was only slightly hit, he wasn’t hurt bad.

 

We changed the gears manually. We had an enunciator in the engine room and the Skipper told us whether he wanted forward, neutral, or aft. The transmission was exactly like the old Model “T’s.” Once you got it in gear, you were free. The Skipper controlled the throttles from the bridge. All we had was forward, aft or neutral. There was no transmission to it as such. Once we first fired up and were just about to get underway we had to watch our enunciator to see which engine the Skipper wanted in gear. We had a seat where we would stay while we were maneuvering around. Once we got underway we were free to get up and walk around and make sure there weren’t any water or oil leaks. It was hot and noisy. We dumb kids didn’t put any plugs in our ears. We always said we didn’t know where they were, or we said we had misplaced them."

[collectsmedals]

The one at the Buffalo Naval park is not actually as WWII PT-Boat.

 

It is PTF-17 a Trumpy Class Fast Patrol Boat launched 1968 at Annapolis, MD.

[collectsmedals]

PTF-17

[Skytroop]

PT-658 in Portland Oregon is the worlds only fully restored PT boat.

 

 

[USARV72]

 

 

Good book on PT Boats in WWII, PM me if you need some info on a Boat or Award(s) of Crew(s).

Dave

[USARV72]

 

 

 

More pages from this book.............

[Skytroop]

PT-658 and PT-659 were also built for the Russians but never delevered as the war ended befor this could happen. Of course you all know the 658 boat is now the worlds only operational boat in its WWII configuration but the 659 was not so lucky.

 

The 659 was brought to Portland almost 20 years ago by the US Navy and given to the Oregon Military Museum at Camp Withycomb in Clackamas Oregon. The boat was eventually given to "Save the PT Boat Inc." and there were plans to restore it until that group found and aquired PT-658 in California.

 

In 1996 the 659 boat was turned over to a group in Vancouver Washington who intended to restore it. Instead it sat as a static display just outside the NE boundary of Pearson Air Park.

 

Late last year it was dismantled and the aft 16 feet of her hull along with three truckloads of parts were sent to the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. Additionally the AFMM which is restoring LCI-713 obtained some parts and ductwork for our vessel.

 

Here is a link to the story in the "Navy Times":

 

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_ptboat_051308/

 

Here is an image of the 659 being dismantled

 

 

And here is some of the ductwork from the 658 boat along with some from LST-1166 (U.S.S. Washtenaw County)

 

 

Sam

[kyhistorian01]

Here are a couple of Official US Navy photos showing PT Boats in action. Enjoy!

 

Robert

 

Pic 1

[kyhistorian01]

Pic 2