Thank you for posting the link.

Like many on this forum, I have had a fascination with any and all light attack craft.

It started with the PT boat then gravitated towards the German S boats, and the British Motor Boats.

All that research, and studying then led me to the PBR units in Vietnam. That was when my fascination grew ten fold..

I always thought I would end up on one someday.. WRONG..

Of course McHale's Navy starring Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway Joe Flynn, and Bob Hastings
helped add to the mystique and aura.

PT boats were made out of a version of plywood.
Not the type you'd buy at Home Depot or even a marine ply supplier but diagonal laminated planks of Mahogany.

I enjoyed that video......thanx for posting it.

Very cool. I knew a PT skipper when I was a young lad. I always liked the lines of the Elco boats, but the skipper said that the Huckins boats were the best.

He was stationed in Panama and at the PT School in Newport RI during, and just after the war.

Claimed to have taken a stripped (no armament, light fuel) Huckins from Commonwealth Pier in Fall River to to the PT School in Newport at 70 kts. Might have done it, too, as the late war Huckins boats would do 50 kts. with a full battle load on.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ArtieS,

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by redstone:
I did not realize PT boats were wooden? Holy cow.

Harken back to the olden days, when "ships were made of wood, and men of iron!"

And, in the war, metal was scarce....

Tanks, Planes, boats, ships, boolits, armor, helmets etc etc etc...

That, too. IIRC, the British Mosquito light bomber was made substantially of wood.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
IIRC, the British Mosquito light bomber was made substantially of wood.

Several of the de Haviland fighter designs were wooden construction, including the Mosquito and Hornet.

As were the Soviet LaGG-1 and LaGG-3 fighters.

(Along with numerous other non-combat transport and recon planes in various air forces.)

The PT boat at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans has been dry docked . Too expensive to operate . It's a Higgins built boat . PT-305

The hulls were stripped planked with resorcinol glue all around. Three layers from what a remember. The constructions is similar to the cold molding used today, but instead of 3/16" thick wood they used much thicker material.

Cold molded construction is plywood built up around a frame. Frame may be left in the boat or removed.

If I recall correctly they were powered by large Packard V12 or V16 engines. Turbocharged. Three per boat. They were not some modified car or truck engine, they were BIG. I am sure in the engine room you walked around the engines.
When I was a kid growing up in NJ there was a Sea Scout Troop somewhere near Port Elizabeth that had a PT Boat. As big as the engines were, they would suck fuel like there was a big hole in the bottom of the boat. Fast and light - given the horsepower they carried.

Today, I learned something new! Thank you for posting.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
Very cool. I knew a PT skipper when I was a young lad. I always liked the lines of the Elco boats, but the skipper said that the Huckins boats were the best.

He was stationed in Panama and at the PT School in Newport RI during, and just after the war.

Claimed to have taken a stripped (no armament, light fuel) Huckins from Commonwealth Pier in Fall River to to the PT School in Newport at 70 kts. Might have done it, too, as the late war Huckins boats would do 50 kts. with a full battle load on.

Only 18 Huckins boats were built during the War. None saw combat. They were used in training, like at the PT School, and a few made it to Hawaii.

Back in the days of party boats and "head" boats (50's, 60's, 70's), there used to be a converted PT boat running out of Morehead City NC called the "Danco". (Ex 80' ELCO PT Boat). You could see her in a slip beside Capt Bill's Restaurant.
She was billed as a "head boat" where you would go out and bottom fish in the Gulf Stream.
We had a motel and marina and my father became friends with the Danco owner and I got to go out on her one day. It was a gorgeous boat and planed off and ran just like in the movies.
Had another friend who had a dad who owned several landing craft and a PT Boat.
But he did not have it long because the fuel costs were high for a playtoy.

Then came the dinosaurs, but they got too big and fat, and eventually Jimmy Carter came along and fuel became too expensive and those boats disappeared.

Great post.

They don't make documentaries like they used to.

Mt great-uncle Thomas Langan built them in his Annapolis yacht yard.

Other than for military and fishing duties, an infamous Naval Officer, Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale, found the PT was more than capable of performing other important services.

Vey cool! Love 'em thanks to McHale's Navy.

Me - USCG 1975-79

Frontispiece photo of a piece of art called, "Knights of the Sea." My uncle had a print of this picture on the wall in their basement.


I thought I'd share one more thing before this thread drifted away. There is a PT Boat Veterans organization founded by a man named Jimmy "Boats" Newberry in Memphis, Tennessee. It's called PT Boats, Inc., and it still exists, although as expected reunions have ceased as the veterans continue to pass away in great numbers.

My Uncle John was not active in the organization and hadn't traveled, with my Aunt Loretta, to any of the reunions. In 1989, however, the reunion was held in Omaha, Nebraska where they lived. That year happened to coincide with my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. I signed my uncle up with PT Boats, Inc. and had a few things sent to him, like a ball cap from the organization.

Anticipating the reunion in Omaha, I began communicating with "Boats" Newberry's daughter, who served the organization in an administrative role. I purchased the book shown in the photographs above and arranged to have it presented to them as an anniversary gift at the banquet in Omaha.

My aunt used to love to tell the story of the two of them being called up to the front of the banquet hall. "Now why are they calling us up there?" She would say in relating the story. "Then they presented us the book and told everyone that we were celebrating celebrating 50 years that month; we were so surprised!"

They're both gone now, but they couldn't have kids and so us nieces and nephews were their kids. So many memories, like watching McHale's Navy with my Uncle John, and war movies. Back then, with WWII so recent, almost every Friday night some war movie was shown at 10:30. I stayed with them a lot and we would stay up together and watch 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, or Merrill's Marauders, maybe They Were Expendable. My Aunt Loretta gave the book back to me after Uncle John died.

I'll add. PT Boats, Inc. maintains a museum and library at Battleship Cove in Falls River, Massachusetts. They have two boats there, an Elco and a Higgins.

My Grandfather was a P.T. Boat Skipper in WWII. There were two ex PT, 80 ft Elcos in Sheepshead Bay back in the 70s. Converted to cruise boats. He would take me there to see them and tell me storys about running around the L.I. Sound in an 80 ft Elco, testing them. IIRC he was stationed in Melville Rhode Island at the PT Training school for a time too.

There was also an old ASR Boat in a canal in Massapequa NY. The owner tried to tell me it was a PT Boat. I was just a kid, but I was polite amd didn't correct him. I joined PT Boats Incorporated when I was 15. I wrote back and forth with Boats Newberry. A nice man. He had two 80 ft Elcos that he got from the South Korean Navy. PT 619 AND PT 620. One of them was pretty far gone and he had it broken up and used the parts to rebuild the other one. The one he rebuilt is up in Fall River MA.

Somewhere, I have a letter from CDR Kelly. He was Skipper of one of the 77 ft PT boats that got McArthur out. PT 34? A very kind and generous man to write back to a kid who loved Elco PT Boats.

Anyways, I still love those sleek beautiful Elco PT Boats. Thanks for the thread! Brought back a lot of very good memories! Regards 18DAI

quote:

Originally posted by redstone:
I did not realize PT boats were wooden? Holy cow.

Yeah, most of the big custom 70-105' new sportfish are still wooden, cold molded constructions (wood coated in epoxy) and they're fast. 80' sportfish that will do 55-60 mph.

They did make at least 1 of the PT boats out of Aluminum, there may be more. The boat is for sale for $1.3 million but has 16 cylinder detroit diesels that will drink fuel like a navy guy drinks beer on shore leave!

https://www.luxuryatch.com/193...ited-states-navy-pt/