W.W.II P.T.Boat

[Tony Drago]

 This is a short 1/2hr clip on how the PT was built.

..

[Larry Fernandez]

I really enjoyed this
Now I want to watch some McHales Navy

Larry Buttafucco Stunt Team

[Tom Luciano]

I'm actually excavating the site where the PT boats were built in Bayonne nj.
 Haven't found any treasures though..

Tom

[Tony Drago]

I'd save a bucket of dirt from that location.

[Dan McEntee]

I really enjoyed this
Now I want to watch some McHales Navy

Larry Buttafucco Stunt Team

     I'll get out my copies of "PT-109" and "They Were Expendable." "Expendable was made during or right after the war, so you would think that finding boats was easy for the production. But I wonder about "PT-109" and McHale's Navy? Are there any still operating anywhere? My Dad was on LST's during the war, and there are two of those still operating. One just passed through going up the Mississippi to Debuque, Iowa for display. I got to tour another one that spent a few weeks here several summers ago.  I'm an airplane nut, and my son is Army, but service in the Navy runs in my family and I have an interest that lies there also.
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[Mike Griffin]

Here in New Orleans, we have the only restored operating PT boat in the world. 

https://pt305.org/

[Mike Griffin]

[Tony Drago]

Mike we have one out this way also. Years ago i was able to see what was left of a PT Boat in Belmont shores CA. Sad thing was the cabin was long gone. Just the Hull and what was left of the deck. I was happy but also sad at the same time.  I visualized the complete boat. I have to say. It was a machine of war that was meant to and did dish out some serious hurt.

PT-658 in Measure 31-20L Camouflage, May 2011, Portland, Oregon

U.S. Navy ...
.PT boat - Wikipedia
 The link below tells about the movies They were Expendable and PT 109 and what PT boats were used
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PT_boat

PT-658
One of the best examples of a surviving 78-foot (24 m) Higgins boat is PT-658, one of two 100% authentically restored and operational U.S. Navy PT boats afloat today. Relaunched after hull restoration from 1995 to 2005,[34] it is located at Pier 308, Vigor Shipyard in Portland, Oregon's Swan Island Lagoon. Maintained by an all volunteer group, it is powered by the three Packard V12 5M-2500 gas engines[35] and includes all weapons, electronics, equipment and accessories restored to appear as they did the day the US Navy accepted the boat, July 31, 1945.

PT-658 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012

[George Albo]

Here in New Orleans, we have the only restored operating PT boat in the world. 

https://pt305.org/

Here's the restoration of PT 305.   


Here's the relaunch!


and

[Dave Hull]

It surprised me that there aren't more around, but I never really though about it. About 20-25 years ago, there were always a couple advertised in the Trade-A-Plane newspaper. I guess they figured that if you had the dough to buy a used Seneca, maybe you could find enough more for your own private warship. I always suspected that these were being bought by the drug smugglers. This was before you heard anything about go-fasts. Maybe there were no PTs, it was just a bait ad?

Dave

[Tony Drago]

Ty. When it comes to book keeping and common seance. The powers to be are a Joke.

[L0U CRANE]

At least a few hulls were sold, empty of all MILSPEC. They were rebuilt, re-powered (of course!) and had a mundane life, as if a racing thoroughbred horse was harnessed to a milk truck for morning deliveries.

One such was renamed RAINBOW and served as a day fishing boat out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY in the mid 50's. There were fish in the ocean near NY Harbor and down the New Jersey coast back then. My father was a compulsive lead-bouncer, and I went out with him many times. Possibly too many times... As a teenager I wanted to do my own stuff weekends; he wanted help carrying home the fish. (...on NYC buses and trolleys!!.. in soggy burlap bags!!) Times have changed...

Anyway, RAINBOW had an unmistakable PT hull, but a relative put-putt of an engine. It may have managed 10 to 12 knots. Never did go out on RAINBOW, but word around the bay said it rolled a lot on even flat seas. Pretty high freeboard, too. You had to reel in another 6 to 10 feet before you could lift a fish over the rail. Most boats were more stable, so their decks were closer to the water. We had a favorite boat before RAINBOW joined the 20 or so day boats, and went out on that one.

Today  no fish. Sheepshead Bay has a small sail and motorboat marina well away from the end of the bay where the day boats docked. Times have changed...

Enjoyed the early "infomercial!" 

[Warren Walker]

My father and uncle were in the navy during WW2, my uncle Wayne severed on a PT boat in the Mediterranean.
He would tell the story about how he got his Purple Heart. His boat was blown out of the water by a  sub and all
survivors were left to die. After many hours in the water, they were picked up by a destroyer. Shortly after that, the same
sub sank the destroyer and he was back in the water, He always said, very few men were blown out of the water twice in one day and
lived to talk about it.
I have his Purple Heart proudly hanging in the Man cave.

[Target]

What is a boat? LOL.

[GERALD WIMMER]

Thanks for posting the PT Boat video Tony, interesting reading of other experiences too. The construction and motors share so much in common with aircraft they seem to hold a natural fascination to a lot of model plane flyers. Had a RC PT boat when I was a youngster that I bought on a trip to Fiji but control line took over that interest and it was sold.
I do remember similar craft of the New Zealand Navy as a kid when I went to open days at the Naval base (used for inshore patrol work) Plenty of left overs from WWII were still around for a long time here in NZ as the US armed forces had a big presence in NZ during WWII. We were used it as a staging post for the Pacific .
About 20 Harbour defence motor launches that are similar sized to the PT boats were made in the USA for the NZ Navy during the war and some still exist today.
see:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_Defence_Motor_Launch
and
http://navymuseum.co.nz/hmnzs-mako-defence-motor-launch/

[Tom Luciano]

I just watched it. The crane still exists, it has been moved to a park and I see it everyday as I go over the Newark Bay bridge. The site I'm developing is the last undeveloped parcel. Most of the property is a townhouse development called "Boatworks". I pulled a lot of concrete foundation pieces out of the ground and what the seismic tests said was  an "anomalie". That anomalie was a 20' wide concrete ramp. The ramps concrete was 1.5' thick with a cobblestone road underneath it. The ramp also had 3' wide walls by 10' deep on each side. every thing was built to last.

  I have learned the people of Bayonne are very proud of Elco and their Bridge. You all should see what they are doing in raising it. Another engineering marvel!!!

Embarrassing enough, I knew nothing of this prior to working there and wondered what the crane was doing sitting in a park!

Tom

[Joseph Patterson]

     There was a derelict PT boat in a slew on Lake Maurepas, LA we would always run by when fishing back in the early 60's. It was half sunk with a big hole in the side. Engines had been removed.

      Doug

[Warren Walker]

I relay a sto

What is a boat? LOL.

I relay a story about my uncle and that's all you can come up with.
What a dick.

[Dan McEntee]

    The videos show they were powered by "Packard" V-12's. Packard manufactured the Rolls-Royce Merlin under license, did they not, so doesn't that make these engines Merlins?  That's kind of what I'm thinking.
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[qaz049]

    The videos show they were powered by "Packard" V-12's. Packard manufactured the Rolls-Royce Merlin under license, did they not, so doesn't that make these engines Merlins?  That's kind of what I'm thinking.
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

I believe they were a marine development of the WW1 "Liberty" engine. Not really aircraft engines at all at the end of their development.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/classiccars/8209523/Packard-V12-4M-2500-engine-in-detail.html

[Warren Walker]

I can't remember if it was in a book or old movie reels, I saw pictures of the Packard assembly line, and if a engine did not pass
inspection for aircraft use it was shifted to another line for PT Boat.

W.W.

[qaz049]

I can't remember if it was in a book or old movie reels, I saw pictures of the Packard assembly line, and if a engine did not pass
inspection for aircraft use it was shifted to another line for PT Boat.

W.W.

Unlikely, since it was a completely different motor.

http://www.pt-boat.com/packard/packard.html


You're probably confusing it with the Rolls Royce built Merlin, which the British used in their RAF Crash Boats and some Tanks.