PT boats (ww2)
 

I picked up a copy of PT 109 over the long weekend and am reading it. I am fired up to find out more about PT boats. I think I will follow this with a watch of the movie pt 109 and try for some McCales Navy reruns!;)

I probably can start with Wiki.

Another goof movie would be " They Were Expendable", starring ( as I stand) John Wayne.

IIRC, plywood was a relatively new product, and its use as the skin for the PT boats was cause for concern by some of the old salts.

Plywood PTs are an urban myth.
 

Most of the PTs anyone ever heard about were Elcos out in the Pacific theater. Elcos were the most prolific PT (over 300 mfgd) and were double diagonal planked from mahogany.

Higgins' were 2nd in number produced (140 something) and were also double diagonal planked. Most Higgins hulls went to the Med and other European locations.

Builders in Annapolis and Florida also built small numbers of PTs. They may have been plywood (but I seriously doubt it). I don't believe any of them saw combat either.

So we're talking about 500 boats total?
Seems like they got a lot of attention for such small numbers.

No argument from me on the plywood myth; I was relying on memory. I just accepted what I had heard.

I have always wanted one....

Myself. I'd rather have a schnellboot.

- Peter.

At some point I want to build a half-sized aluminum hulled PT with twin Cummins 6BT engines. Not really a lot of point to that now that I'm off the coast though.

I like wooden boats.... the kind with sails

They sound like they would be fun to run around in but with no armor at all it would be a pretty vulnerable feeling with destroyers about.

all offense and no defense except speed and maneuverability.

How larger were those PT boats, Tom? They always looked small next to destroyers, but I'm guessing they were pretty big compared to your typical weekend pleasurecraft.

McArthur's biography, "American Caesar," has an interesting segment recounting the evacuation of the general and his family by PT boat from Corregidor. The voyage (to Mindanao) lasted several hundred miles and was apparently pretty hard on the passengers. They were, of course, traveling as covertly as possible to avoid Japanese detection.

LOA ran from 70 to 80 feet. Approx 600 or so were built by ELCO, Higgins and Huckins.
useful Info on the boats.
http://www.ptboats.org/20-01-05-ptboat-001.html

thanks for the cool link.........

One of my father's friends [back in the 1950's] had a surplus PT Boat [Plywood hull, built in Oyster Bay NY]

Originally it had 4 Packard copies of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, driving two shafts.

He made some serious modifications, ultimately to three shafts. The original transmissions and props were modified to work with a pair of marine diesel engines, and one Packard was retained with a new transmission and prop shaft [forward only] to provide just enough oomph to get the hull up onto the step. [Much lighter than the wartime fuel and ammo load]

Apparently there were variations. PT 109 it says had three v12 packards. I assumed that it had three props but it does not specifically say.