PT Boat 658 - A Functional, Restored PT Boat

[KarlCarrera]

Thanks Byron.

I wish more people had a greater understanding.

Thanks

Karl
88 Targa

[tcar]

Originally Posted by tabs

Plywood Hull..Rolls Royce Merlins...

Nope... Liberty V12's.

Packard made the Merlins too, but these aren't Merlins.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Well, anybody wanting to see this one should sniff around Portland, Oregon..
Footage was taken on the Columbia..

Had I known about it my last trip out, I would have gone to see it. It wasn't until high school that I learned the history of Huckins, and the PTs they built. My father also served in the Pacific, but I never heard him talk about it, other than show some spoons he some how got home, and since he has been gone since 93, I never will know..
Glad everyone is enjoying the link to our past..

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by spuggy

The Brits made several versions (called MTBs)

The hull design of the Elco has strong British roots.

http://www.petertare.org/ptdesign/pt_design.htm

Scott-Paine founded the British Powerboat Company ..............The superior performance of the Scott-Paine boat was not lost on Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison. By January of 1939, virtually all of the domestic private and government proposals had proven flawed. But, however desperate the Navy might have been to begin production, it did not want to appear to be selling out American boatbuilders by throwing in with the British Powerboat Company. In a clandestine meeting, Edison sought out Sutphen to act as a straw man to buy the Scott-Paine prototype and ship it back to the U.S. for trials. The boat arrived in New York two days after the outbreak of war in Europe.

The Higgins design bore no resemblance to the Elco 80. Where the Elco boat gradually evolved from the original Scott-Paine design, the Higgins 78' was designed in-house by Frank Higgins and Teddy Sprague

[asphaltgambler]

Those boats ( I believe) were the fastest most manuverable craft in their day?

[Joeaksa]

Also saw a History Channel (or was it NatGeo?) special on this boat last week. Very good story and excellent footage.

Good to see these old boats being saved!

Joe A

[nota]

a buddy of my dad had a WW2 PT in 1958 in Detroit
the boat was set up like a bus with about 50 seats in a post war conversion to a crew boat
and was missing one of the v12s as well as the superstructure and all the military toys
still could make about 30 mph and plenty of noise with the two remaining v12s

we got to ride in the boat from Detroit across lake ST Claire and up to the next great lake
where the guy had a summer house on a island

[ODDJOB UNO]

the PT boats of that era ALSO suffered from the dreaded CRAP early war u.s. torpedos. lots of duds and misfires and the ensuent getting their azz handed to them by much bigger ships upon discovery. the german boats if ya look had the torpedo tubes structured into the hull, not above the deck like ours.


the jap long lance torpedos were:

a) HUGE

b) fast

c) always went bang! and i mean ALWAYS!


lord only knows how many more enemy ships would have gone down, if the u.s. had had their act together as far as effective torpedos. alot of PT boaters and submariners lost their lives because of faulty torpedos.



i'd give my left and right nut up to own a german/british/u.s. PT boat!



what a FREEKING HOOT!

[johnco]

there's a restored torpedo boat near here (15-20 miles away). It was for sale recently for 1 mil or so I believe. I see it everytime I pass that way

[daepp]

From the Nethercutt

PACKARD V-12




PACKARD MERLIN

[kach22i]

I remember reading as a kid a story in one of my PT Boat/WWII books about wax in the fuel. As I remember it in lieu of blowing up their own in the process of being captured fuel or blowing up our fuel depots on missions, the Japanese saboteurs would add wax to the gas.

This would cause our PT boats to stop running in enemy waters to be captured or sunk. The wax would accumulate in the carburetors and need to be disassembled and cleaned out.

Don't make much sense to me now, but that's what I remember reading as a kid.

[tabs]

As promised

[mossguy]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Very cool!

Didn't John Wayne have a PT boat?

Minesweeper.

[LWJ]

I believe we talked about a trip to the PT boat for a Cub Scout trip. Hasn't happened. I keep running into people who work on it. Cool hobby.

Larry

[tabs]

Lou Costello of Abott and Costello had a converted PT Boat...it was the first of the high powered cruiser type speed boats...

[pwd72s]

Anybody wanting more info or wishing to keep this boat afloat can click here:

PT Boat PT Boats PT658 - Save The PT Boat