While docked, PT boat squadrons were supported by PT boat tenders or base facilities which supplied boat crews with hot meals. The American side of the PT boat ("Patrol Torpedo") wars of World War 2 are primarily remembered through the exploits of the men governing their ELCO PT systems against the vessels of the mighty Japanese Navy. Higgins developed the small and fast 70-foot (21 m) Higgins Hellcat, which was a slight variation on their original hull form, but the Navy rejected them for full production due to increased fuel consumption and other considerations. Structural weaknesses caused failures in transverse bottom framing, separation of side planking from framing and extensive failures of deck fastenings. Later, rigorous testing performed on each design as well as changes in armament revealed limitations or problems that had to be fixed before they could meet required performance specifications. Accelerometers were installed in the pilot house of each design to record "pounding". [4] The larger boat was used for experiments until 1930. Now located in a New Jersey boatyard in awaiting restoration.[43]. In 1943, an inquiry was held by the Navy to discuss planing, hull design, and fuel consumption issues. Charles Schumann in the 1980s. During World War II, PT boats engaged enemy warships, transports, tankers, barges, and sampans. PT-459 ("Mahogany Menace") a Higgins 78-foot (24 m) boat, was assigned to MTBRON 30 on 15 February 1944 under the command of LCDR Robert L. Searles. PT boats were also well armed with numerous automatic weapons. The efficiency of the PT boats at sinking the Japanese supply barges was considered a key reason that the Japanese had severe food, ammunition, and replacement problems during the New Guinea and Solomon Island campaigns, and made the PT boats prime targets for enemy aircraft. [10], The Elco 77-Footer Design Demonstrates:[10], The Huckins 72-Foot Design Demonstrates:[10], The Navy Yard Philadelphia 81-Foot Design Demonstrates:[10], The Higgins 81-Foot Design Demonstrates:[10], The Higgins 76-Foot Design Demonstrates:[10], The Board arrived at the following recommendations:[10], The Board also had the following opinion on structural sufficiency: "During the first series of tests (21–24 July) the Huckins design (PT-69), the Philadelphia design (PT-8) and the Higgins design (PT-6) completed the open sea endurance run without structural damage. Armament: 2 21" torpedo tubes, 4 Mk VII torpedoes; 2x2 .50-cal. In 1944, several Higgins 78-foot (24 m) boats (PT222, PT-283, PT-284, PT-285, and PT-282) were converted, releasing PT-59, PT-60, and PT-61 for transfer back home to the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island for use in training in hull repair techniques. Some were converted into gunboats, which could be effective against enemy small craft, especially armored barges used by the Japanese for inter-island transport. The boatyards were located in Annapolis, City Island, Miami, and Los Angeles. The Huckins withdrew due to bilge stringer failure. PT-3 served with the RCAF Fleet as the RCAF Bras d'Or M413 (B119) based at Eastern Air Command in Halifax. After the initial competition, in late 1939, the Navy contracted Elco to build 11 copies of PT-9. This type of construction made it possible for damage to the wooden hulls of these boats to be easily repaired at the front lines by base force personnel. Fittings and finish unnecessarily refined. All PTs prior to the 77 ft (23 m) Elcos had been found defective, and it was probable the extended 70 ft (21 m) Elco would not be an improvement. By the end of World War II, 399 Elco PTs had been built. [citation needed]. [15] Part of the Mark 17 Mod 1 and Mod 2 ring mount consisted of the Bell Mark 9 twin cradle. Three more boats were shipped down the Danube and were being reconstructed at Constanța. [6] These four boats were designed by George Crouch, and modified in some details by the Bureau of Ships. The vessel was sold in 1952 to Otto Stocker who operated the "Sightseer" as an excursion vessel from Otten's Harbor in Wildwood, New Jersey. The Higgins boats had the same beam, full load displacement, engines, generators, shaft horsepower, trial speed, armament, and crew accommodation as the 80 ft (24 m) Elco boats. Many Higgins boats were sent to the Soviet Union and Great Britain at the beginning of the war, so many of the lower-numbered squadrons in the U.S. Navy were made up exclusively of Elcos. That the ordnance installation of future motor torpedo boats consist of two torpedo tubes, machine guns and depth charges. PT overview. Many PT boats became famous during and after World War II: 1. This covers PT boat hull design and construction, and provides hull test data as well as detailed analysis of the various PT boat designs.[13]. PT Boats Operating from Tufi attacked shipping along the north coast of New Guinea from Buna to Mambare. Dean Franklin Patton, who died Aug. 15 at age 87, “was a World War II Navy PT Boat combat veteran, having served throughout the South Pacific as a Gunner’s Mate aboard PT … With a full loaded weight of 56,000 pounds, C-378 made a top speed of 37 kn (69 km/h; 43 mph) with 1,400 horsepower (1,000 kW), and maintained an average speed of 34.5 kn (63.9 km/h; 39.7 mph) in a winter northeaster storm with 12-to-14-foot (3.7 to 4.3 m) seas, which would still be considered exceptional even 100 years later. During World War II the Elco Naval Division of the Electric Boat Co., in Bayonne, N.J., built nearly 400 patrol torpedo, or PT, boats for the U.S. Navy. World War II PT boats continued to exploit some of the advances in planing hull design borrowed from offshore powerboat racing and by using multiple lightweight but more powerful marinized aircraft-derived V-12 engines were able to grow in both size and speed. [22] There are several recorded instances of PT boats trading fire with friendly aircraft,[22] a situation also familiar to U.S. submariners. [22] They also performed lifesaving and anti-shipping mine destruction missions during the invasion. Packard built many thousands of engines prior to the second world war including car engines, of course, and the famous "Liberty" aircraft engines and Packard's own developments and patents and other developments and inventions by the likes of General Electric on superchargers went into the development of the Packard marine engine that were produced in their thousands during the war to power the U.S. … The last of her type to be constructed, she was nicknamed Tail Ender. PT-308 (Higgins) had her stern sheared off by a collision with PT-304 during a night mission in the Mediterranean on 9 March 1945 and yet returned to base for repairs. She is located in San Diego and is now named Malihini. The boat was serviced and stored by Elco. Folks, "Know Your PT Boat," July 1945, was created very near the end of WW II to use as an introduction to PT Boats for crews' in training. PT-796 ("Tail Ender") is a 78-foot (24 m) Higgins. Coincidentally, the PT-309 ("Oh Frankie! Though their primary mission continued to be attack on surface ships and craft, PT boats were also used effectively to lay mines and smoke screens, coordinate in air-sea rescue operations, rescue shipwreck survivors, destroy Japanese suicide boats, destroy floating mines, and carry out intelligence or raider operations. Completed and launched in the summer of 1945 by Elco,  PT- 617 was assigned to Patrol Torpedo Squadron 42. The 796 saw temporary post-war duty as part of MTB Squadron 1, patrolling in the Caribbean and off the East Coast. The accelerometers ranked the boats as follows: first was the Philadelphia Navy Yard PT-8 with the least pounding, second was the Huckins PT-69, third was the Higgins PT-6, and last were the Elco 77-footers. Huckins ended up building just two squadrons of PT boats during World War II. On 8 June 1939, contracts were let to the Fogal Boat Yard, Inc., later known as the Miami Shipbuilding Co., of Miami, Florida, for PT-1 and -2 "Crash Boats",[5] and to the Fisher Boat Works, Detroit, Michigan, for PT-3 and -4. The installation of larger-bore cannons culminated in the fitting of the 40mm Bofors gun[18] on the aft deck. Plans are for restoring the vessel to recreate the World War II appearance. Built not of plywood, as many believe, but rather of mahogany planks, and powered by a trio of Packard marine engines, these vessels operated in … Mark 8 torpedoes had a range of 16,000 yards (14,630 m) at 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). PT-657, a Higgins 78-foot (24 m) boat, has been converted into a charter fishing boat. In March 1941, during a heavy weather run from Key West to New York by Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2 (MTBRON 2), Elco 70-footers pounded heavily in 8-to-10-foot (2.4 to 3.0 m) waves even at moderate speeds, and seas continuously broke high over the bows. They had a 20 ft 8 in (6.30 m) beam. Ten Higgins boats were delivered in 1948 for use by the Argentine Navy during the late 1940s up until the late 1970s. The Elco Naval Division boats were the longest of the three types of PT boats built for the Navy used during World War II. She was mostly used to motivate morale on the home front with a Victory Loan Bond Drive. Even though only half as many Higgins boats were produced, far more survive (seven hulls, three of which have been restored to their World War II configuration) than the more numerous Elco boats. These torpedoes and tubes were replaced in mid-1943 by four lightweight 22.5-inch-diameter (570 mm) Mark 13 torpedoes, which weighed 2,216 pounds (1,005 kg) and contained a 600-pound (270 kg) Torpex-filled warhead. They dominated a specific part of naval warfare, that of night warfare in coastal waters, but in that part they were essential because neither other vessels nor aircraft could perform as they did. PT-8 (built at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard) in Louisiana was built entirely from aluminum but did not pass the speed acceptance criteria for use as a PT boat for the U.S. Navy due to its weight. [23] PT-766 is an 80-foot (24 m) Elco boat that is a private yacht ("Finished Business") located in Washington D.C. She represents the final class of Elco's with significant updates to the superstructure and radar and was intended for MTBRON 44, but was cancelled due to the end of the war. The first Higgins PT boats were used against the Imperial Japanese forces in the Battle for the Aleutian Islands and in the Mediterranean against Nazi Germany and her allies. This need for small, fast, versatile, strongly armed vessels does not … During the D-Day invasion, PTs patrolled the "Mason Line", forming a barrier against the German S-boats attacking the Allied landing forces. Not invited to participate in the original design competition, by late 1940, Huckins had a meeting with Captain James M. Irish, Chief of Design of BuShips, and offered to build a "planing seagoing hull" PT boat, on the condition the Navy loan Huckins engines and agree to look at the Huckins boat. These torpedoes were carried on lightweight Mark 1 roll-off style torpedo launching racks. Today, just over 2,500 historic places bear this national distinction. The boat was decommissioned in 1970. Packard liquid-cooled engines (3); 1,200 hp. That the Packard power plant having been found highly satisfactory be adopted as standard for future construction. In spring of 2012, PT-728 was acquired by the Liberty Aircraft Museum of Port Clinton, OH for further restoration. The use of PT boat torpedoes was ineffective against these sometimes heavily armed barges, since the minimum depth setting of the torpedo was about 10 feet (3 m) and the barges drew only 5 feet (1.5 m). During World War II, Vospers of Great Britain arranged for several boatyards in the United States to build British-designed 70 ft (21 m) motor torpedo boats under license to help the war effort. All boats suffered from some sort of structural failure: forward chine guards ripped away, bottom framing under bows broken, side planking cracked [indicating lack of longitudinal strength], and other weaknesses. 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