PT boat

PT boats in line astern.

PT 105 in a hurry.

A PT boat was a motor torpedo boat (hull classification symbol "PT", for "Patrol Torpedo"), a small, fast vessel used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships. The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet".

Among the famous PT boats, was PT-109, commanded by future United States President John F. Kennedy, a PT-103 class torpedo boat, hundreds of which were built between 1942 and 1945 by Elco (Electric Launch Corporation ) at Bayonne, New Jersey. (Elco later merged with its sister company, Electric Boat Corporation, in 1948, to form General Dynamics). Another famous PT Boat was PT-41, a 77 foot Elco boat Commanded by Lt John D. Bulkeley, who rescued General Douglas McArthur from certain capture by the Japanese in a daring escape from Corregidor Island, Philippines, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his exploits. This story inspired both a book, They Were Expendable and a movie of the same name. This story of the diminutive PT boats beating overwhelming odds went a long way in propping up sagging American morale in the dark days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Class history

The US Navy requested a competitive bid for several different concepts of torpedo boats. This competition led to eight prototype boats built to compete in the 2 different classes. The first class was to be for 55 foot boats, and the second class to be for 70 foot boats. The resulting PT boat designs were the product of of a small cadre of respected naval architects and the Navy. Henry R Sutphen of Elco and his Elco designers Irwin Chase, Bill Fleming and Glenville Tremaine, visited the UK to see their Motor Torpedo Boat designs. While visiting theBritish Power Boat Companythey purchased a 70-foot design (PV70) (later renamed PT-9 during the competition), designed by Hubert Scott-Paine. Other entries in the competion were 2 boats (PT-7 and PT-8) built by Andrew Jackson Higgins of the Higgins Industries of New Orleans, and designers at the Huckins Yacht Company also came up with competing 70 foot boat class designs. The US Navy at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, came up with other designs. (PT-1 through PT-6) The results of the competition found that none of the boats as built, were up to the necessary performance specifications identified by the US Navy.

Representatives of the Elco company had substantial small boat building experience, having built during WW I 550 eighty-foot sub chasers for the British Admiralty. Additionally in 1921, they introduced the famous 26-foot "Cruisette", (a gasoline cabin cruiser). This success in small boat building was followed in the 1930’s with 30′ to 57′ "Veedettes" and "Flattops", gasoline powered boats that set the highest standard in a golden era of boating. This small boat experience helped Elco obtain a contract for 10 boats based on the 70 foot Scott-Paine Model PT Boat. These 70 foot boats were tested and determined to be too light for open sea work but Elco got a contract for 24 larger boats based on a lengthened 77 foot design.

The design competition and seaworthiness trials for the PT boat was nicknamed "The Plywood Derby" and took place prior to the United States entering the war, in early 1941. The Navy Department held these competition trials around New York Harbor. This was a shakedown to see which company would be contracted to build the Navy PT boats. At the completion of the trials the Navy was impressed with all three designs, with the Elco 77 footer coming out on top, followed by the Higgins 76 footer and Huckins 72 foot boat. Although Elco came in first, the Navy saw the merits of the other two boats and decided to offer all three companies contracts. Elco received the lion's share of the contract (385 boats by the end of the war), Higgins was second (199 boats by the end of the war) and Huckins with the smallest contract (18 boats by the end of the war, none of which would see combat, being assigned to home defense squadrons in the Panama Canal Zone, Miami, Florida and in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor). Huckins was a tiny yacht-building company based out of Jacksonville, Florida and was unable to build the number of boats needed by the Navy. Although they built a few 78-foot (24 m) boats of the PT-95 class, the 80-foot (24.4 m) Elco boats, and the 78-foot (24 m) Higgins boats became the standard American motor torpedo boats of World War II. Even though more 80-foot Elco boats were built than any other type of motor torpedo boat(326 of their 80-foot boats were built) Elco also produced 49 of their 77-foot boats and ten 70-foot boats.

Elco

The Elco boats were the largest in size of the three types of PT boats built for US Navy used during World War II. Wooden-hulled, 80 feet (24.4 m) long with a 20 ft 8 in (6.3 m) beam, the Elco PT boats had three 12-cylinder gasoline fueled engines. These were Packard built, a modified design of the 3A-2500 V-12 liquid-cooled aircraft engine. The "3A" was itself an improved version of the "2A" engine used on the Huff-Daland Keystone LB-1 "Liberty" bomber of World War One vintage. When the engines were designed for use in the PT Boats, Packard modified them for marine use, hence the "M" designation instead of "A". (ie 3A-2500 then 4M-2500). The aircraft engine roots of the Packard engine gave it many features of aircraft engines such as supercharger, intercooler, dual magnetos, two spark plugs per cylinder, etc. The Packard Engine factory simultaneously built the Rolls Royce Merlin aero engine under licence in a production line side by side with the PT Boat engine production line, but with the exception of the PT-9 prototype boat that was brought from England for Elco to examine and copy, the Merlin was never used in any PT Boats. These Packard 4M-2500 engines initially generated 1,200 hp but were subsequently upgraded in stages to 1,500 hp (1,150 kW) each for a designed speed of 41 knots (76 km/h). Increases in the weight of the boats during the war meant that the top speed did not go up as the engine power increased. The gasoline consumption of these engines was phenomenal - a PT Boat carried 3,000 gallons (11,360 litres) of 100 octane Avgas. A normal patrol for these boats would last a maximum of 12 hours. The consumption rate for each engine at a cruising speed of 23 knots was about 66 gallons (250 l) per hour. (200 gallons (760 l) per hour for all 3 engines) However, when going at top speed the gasoline consumption increased to 166 gallons (250 l) per hour per engine (or 500 gallons [1,890 l] per hour for all 3 engines). At the top speed of 41+ knots, the 3,000 gallons (11,360 l) of gas would be used in only about 6 hours. With accommodations for 3 officers and 14 men, the crew varied from 12 to 14. Its full-load displacement late in the war was 56 tons.

Early Elco boats had one 20 mm Oerlikon cannon, four M2 .50 inch machine guns or four .30 inch Lewis Guns, and two or four 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes launching Mark 8 torpedoes. Some of them carried two to four US Navy Mark 6 depth charges in roll off racks, or mine racks. Later boats mounted one 40 mm Bofors gun aft and four 22.5 inch diameter Mark 13 torpedo launching racks, two along each side. Some PTs later received two eight-cell five inch spin stabilized flat trajectory rocket launchers, giving them 16 rockets and as much firepower for a short time as a destroyer mounting five inch guns. By war's end the PT boat had more firepower-per-ton than any other vessel in the U.S. Navy. One other addition that the US Navy PT Boats had was their Raytheon SO type radar, with about a 25 nm range. Since PT boats operated mainly at night, having radar gave them an advantage over the enemy in being able to locate and engage them even in zero visibility conditions. Although radar is not specifically a weapon, its use by the PT boats made the other weapons much more effective.

In addition, many boats received ad hoc refits at advanced bases, mounting such weapons as 37 mm aircraft cannon and even captured Japanese 23 mm guns. One famous example was Kennedy's PT-109 which was equipped with a 37 mm single shot anti-tank cannon that the crew had commandeered and bolted to the foredeck. Another similar type of weapon that gained widespread use as the war progressed was the 37 mm Oldsmobile M4 and M9 aircraft automatic cannon. Originally cannibalized from crashed P-39 Airacobra fighter planes on Guadalcanal, and then later manufactured and installed at the boat's Elco and Higgins factories, the M4/M9 cannon had a relatively high rate of fire (125 rounds/minute) and large magazine (30 rounds) making this weapon highly desirable due to the PT boat's ever increasing need for a larger "punch" to deal effectively with the Japanese "daihatsu" barges which were immune to torpedoes due to their shallow draft. By the war's end, most of the PT boats had been fitted with these efficient weapons.

Higgins

Higgins produced 199 78-foot boats. The Higgins boats, built by Higgins Industries in New Orleans, Louisiana, were 78-foot (24 m) boats of the PT-71 class. The Higgins boats had the same beam, full load displacement, engine, generators, shaft power, trial speed, armament, and crew accommodations as the 80-foot (24 m) Elco boats. Numerous Higgins boats were sent to the USSR and Great Britain at the beginning of the war, so many of the lower squadrons in the USN were made up exclusively of Elcos. The first Higgins boats for the US Navy were used in the Battle for the Aleutian Islands (Attu and Kiska) as part of Squadron 13, and others in the Mediterranean against the Germans.

Others

The Canadian Power Boat Company produced five PT boats for the US Navy.

The British-designed 70 foot (21 m) Vosper boats, 146 of which were built for Lend Lease, carried 18-inch (457 mm) torpedoes. Since the US produced the heavier and longer 21-inch torpedoes, the US Navy wanted a larger PT boat. After experimentation, the first PT boat built in any quantity was the 77-foot (23 m) type built by Elco. These boats were used early in World War II. Total production of all types, including experimental designs, was 768. [1]

Service

Originally conceived as anti-ship weapons, the PT boats of Squadron 3 were publicly (but some say erroneously) credited with sinking several Japanese warships during the period of December 1941 - March 1942 during the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese. What neither the PT Boat crews, nor their comrades in the submarine service knew in this time frame was that their torpedoes were defective. The American torpedoes ran at depths well below their set depth, and both of the firing mechanisms built into the torpedo regularly malfunctioned. The more squarely the torpedo was lined up on the target, the more likely the torpedo was to fail. Either the torpedo would run under the target, the torpedo would explode prematurely, or it would strike the target and break apart without exploding. Interestingly, early German torpedoes had suffered almost identical defects. None of these faults were visible to the PT Boat crews, who were attacking at night. The effectiveness of PT Boats in the Solomon Islands campaign, where there were numerous engagements between PT Boats and capital ships, was substantially undermined by these defects. The Japanese were initially cautious when operating their capital ships in areas known to have PT Boats, since they knew how dangerous their own "Long Lance" torpedoes were and they assumed the American Navy would have equally lethal weapons. In several engagements, the mere presence of PT Boats was sufficient to disrupt heavily escorted Japanese resupply activities at Guadalcanal, but this tactical advantage did not last long.

PT-109

see main article PT-109

The most famous incident in this campaign was when skipper John F. Kennedy's PT-109 was sent out into Blackett Strait to intercept the Tokyo Express. In what National Geographic called a "poorly planned and badly coordinated" attack, 15 boats with 60 torpedoes attacked, but not a single hit was scored. Patrolling after the action, the PT-109 was struck on a dark moonless night by a Japanese destroyer returning from its supply mission. The captain was unaware initially that it had even struck a boat, though other reports are that the captain told authorities that he had seen the boat. Only two men were lost. The survivors were remarkably found by two Solomon Islanders dispatched in a traditional dugout canoe by an Australian coastwatcher. The incident would be made into magazine articles, books, a major motion picture, inspired several television shows starting with McHale's Navy, and the subject of a search of the man who found the wreck of the Titanic.

During the long Solomon Islands campaign, they operated at night and at times of low visibility against Japanese shipborne resupply efforts dubbed by Admiral William "Bull" Halsey as "The Tokyo Express" in "the Slot", a narrow seaward channel linking the Japanese stronghold at Bougainville to the island of Guadalcanal. Throughout World War II, PT Boats operated in the southern, western, and northern Pacific, as well as in the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel. Some served during the Battle of Normandy. During the D-Day invasion, the PT Boats patrolled along the "Mason Line", forming a barrier against the German S Boats attacking the Allied landing forces. They also performed lifesaving and anti-shipping mine destruction missions during the invasion.

Perhaps the most effective use of PT Boats was in the role of "Barge Busters". Since both the Japanese in the New Guinea area and the Germans in the Mediterranean had lost numerous resupply vessels to Allied airpower during daylight hours, each attempted to resupply their troop concentrations by using shallow draft barges at night in very shallow waters. The shallow waters were such that Allied destroyers were unable to follow them due to the risk of running aground and the barges could be protected by an umbrella of shore batteries. The PT Boats were also a shallow draft vessel that could follow the barges into the shallows and sink them. Using torpedoes was ineffective against these sometimes heavily armed barges, since the minimum depth setting of the torpedo was about ten feet (3 m) and the barge was only 5 feet (1.5 m) in draft. This was the reason that PT Boats started installing more and heavier guns/cannons, which were able to sink the barges by the sheer weight of firepower. One captured Japanese soldier's diary described their fear of the US PT boats by describing them as "the monster that roars, flaps it wings, and shoots torpedoes in all directions".

Though their primary mission continued to be seen as attack of surface ships and craft, PT boats were also used effectively to lay mines and smoke screens, to rescue downed aviators, and to carry out intelligence or raider operations.

In 1943 in the Solomon Islands, three 77-foot (23 m) PT boats, PT-59, PT-60, and PT-61, were even converted into gunboats by stripping the boat of all original armament except for the two twin .50 inch (~12.7 mm) gun mounts, and then adding two 40 mm guns and four more twin .50 inch (~12.7 mm) machine guns. Lt John F. Kennedy was the first commanding officer of PT-59 after the conversion.

PT Boats Today

At the end of the war, almost all surviving US PT boats were disposed of shortly after V-J Day. Hundreds of boats were deliberately stripped of all useful equipment and then dragged up on the beach and burned. This was done to minimize the amount of upkeep the US Navy would have to do, since wooden boats require a lot of continuous maintenance, and were not considered worth the effort. The level of gasoline consumption relative to the boat's small size also made their operational expense impracticable for a peacetime navy. Much of this destruction activity occurred at PT Base 17 located on the island of Samar, Philippines, near Bobon Point. A total of nine PT Boat hulls still survive to this day. Two of these nine PT boats that survive in World War II configuration are on static display in Battleship Cove, Massachusetts: An 80 foot Elco boat PT-617 and PT-796, a 78-foot Higgins. The two are exhibited at the PT Boat Museum in Fall River, Massachusetts. Both of these boats are located inside, protected from the weather and up on blocks. Both are also available for public viewing. The Elco boat, PT-617, has a portion of the hull cut away to display the cramped interior of the crew's quarters. An interesting sidenote is this Higgins boat, PT-796, was used during President John F. Kennedy's inaugural parade to represent PT-109, with the PT-109 hull number painted on the bow. These boats, owned by PT Boats, Inc., a WWII PT veterans organization headquartered in Germantown Tennessee (a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee) are both non-operational and configured as museum displays.

There is also another surviving 78 foot Higgins PT Boat, the USS PT-658, which has been completely restored to its original 1945 configuration during the years 1995 - 2005. The PT-658 is now fully functional and afloat. It is the only 100% authentically restored US Navy PT Boat that is operational today in the world. The USS PT-658 is located in Portland, Oregon at the Swan Island Naval Reserve Center Pier. She is afloat and has 3 working 1,850 hp Packard Model 5M-2500 V12 gasoline engines. A dedicated group of PT Boat veterans formed the organization Save the PT Boat, Inc., and then restored the boat, to include a full armament of 4 Mark 13 Torpedoes, 2 twin .50 inch Browning M2 machine guns, a 40 mm Bofors cannon, two 20 mm Oerlikon cannons, and 2 Mark 6 300 pound TNT depth charges. There is also another non-operational restored 78 foot Higgins PT Boat, the USS PT-309, located at the Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, which was restored by The Defenders of America. The USS PT-309 is currently inside a static diorama display without engines installed. Its external restoration was completed by the Texas group in 2002, and is to a high standard.

Five more former USN PT boat hulls have recently been located in the United States. One is the PT-48, a 77 foot Elco, located in Leesburg Florida near Orlando and in need of major restoration, after having been cut down to 59 feet and used as a dinner cruise boat. Another is the USS PT-305, a 78 foot Higgins which has been obtained by the Defenders Of America organization and is located in Clear Lake City, Texas. The PT-305 is currently undergoing restoration, after having been cut down to 65 feet. Also, there is the PT-659, a 78 foot Higgins, located in Vancouver, Washington, and is awaiting final disposition for possible restoration. The ex-PT-657, is another 78 foot Higgins, has been converted into a charter fishing boat. The ex-PT-657 is located in San Diego, California and renamed as the "Malahini". All of these boats could possibly one day again be restored as a PT boat configuration, although much work remains to be done. Sadly, an Elco 80 foot boat, PT-761, was originally scheduled for restoration by the Defenders of America group, but was destroyed at the storage facility Feb 2006 http://www.defendersofamerica.org/DOANM_PT761Restoration.cfm Recently, in Feb 2002, another 80 foot Elco boat ex-PT486 now called "Schumann Sails Big Blue" was discovered operating as a sightseeing boat out of Ottens Harbor, in Wildwood, NJ.

Some examples of famous PT boats:

• PT-41 - Flagship of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three (RON 3), based in the Philippine Islands 1941 - 1942 (PTs 41,31,32,33,34,35). Commanded by LT. John D. Bulkeley USN
• PT-34 - Part of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three
• PT-109 - Commanded by Lt John F. Kennedy USNR

The 1963 movie PT-109 used what appear to be a small fleet of 3 or 4 Elco boats. The engine telegraph even shows the Elco name, but some believe the boats were converted from other craft.

Cultural Impact

The story of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three in the retreat from the Philippines early in World War II was documented in the book They Were Expendable by W.L. White, ISBN 1-55750-948-4, originally published in 1942 soon after the events depicted. Later, in 1945 John Ford made it into a notable war film starring John Wayne. One of the most famous PT boats, PT-41, was part of this squadron.

The JFK story is told in PT 109: John F. Kennedy in WWII by Robert J. Donovan, published in 1961, ISBN 0-07-137643-7. PT 109 was also a 1963 film starring Cliff Robertson. While he was President, JFK handed out PT-109 tieclasps to favored guests and associates.

The TV situation comedy, and later films, McHale's Navy was set in a PT boat squadron. The pilot was based on a shipwrecked PT-boat crew, evidently inspired by Kennedy's adventure. Gilligan's Island was released in 1964, the year after the PT-109 movie, also about a shipwrecked boat led by a skipper.

In the 1980s, a video game simulation called PT-109 was popular on early personal computers.

Rei Hiroe's Black Lagoon has a crew of pirates/mercenaries composed of foreign nationals (including an ex-Japanese salaryman) operating from a refurbished PT boat codenamed Black Lagoon.

General Printed References

• Angus Konstam, PT-Boat Squadrons - US Navy Torpedo Boats (Ian Allan Publishing, June 2005)
• Robert J. Bulkley, At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy (Naval Institute Press; 1st Naval edition, 2003)
• Victor Chun, American PT Boats in World War II: A Pictorial History (Schiffer Publishing, 1997)
• T. Garth Connelly, Don Greer, Tom Tullis, Joe Sewell, Pt Boats in Action (Warships, No 7) (Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1994)
• Michael Green, PT Boats (Land and Sea) (Capstone Press, 1999)
• An excellent compendium of information about the Elco PT Boats can be found in "Allied Coastal Forces of World War II" Volume II by John Lambert and Al Ross. ISBN 1-55750-035-5. This book has a detailed history of the development of the various Elco boats, with numerous drawings and photos. It also has sections on PT Boat construction, as well as chapters on the Packard engines and typical weaponry used aboard PT Boats.

PT-109 story printed references

• Robert J. Donovan, PT 109: John F. Kennedy in WWII (1961) ISBN 0-07-137643-7
• Richard Tregaskis, John F. Kennedy and PT-109 (American Printing House for the Blind, 1966) ASIN: B0007HSN7S
• Robert D. Ballard, Collision With History: The Search for John F. Kennedy's PT 109 (National Geographic, 2002)
• Haruyoshi Kimmatsu, The night We sank John Kennedy's PT 109 appeared in Argosy Magazine December 1970 Vol 371 # 6
• Tameichi Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain (Ballantine Books, 1978) ISBN 0-345-27894-1
• The 2002 anime "Black Lagoon" features a PT boat as its main characters' primary mode of transportation.

See also

Other WW2 torpedo boats

• Motor Torpedo Boat British MTBs
• British Power Boat Company Producer of the PT Boat prototype
• E-boat German Schnellboote

External links

• An example of daily life aboard a PT boat, recorded in the deck logs
• PT Boat Museum website
• Save the PT Boat USS PT658 website
• PT-617 Photos of the Elco PT Boat PT-617 in Fall River, MA
• PT-796 Photos of the Higgins PT Boat PT-796 in Fall River, MA
• PT-235 Photos of life on board a PT Boat in the Pacific in WWII by PT Boat Veteran Milt Donadt of PT-235