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PT Boat found after earthquake
slipgate
Member Posts: 12,741
This is interesting!
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/27/quake.pt.boat.ap/index.html
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Wreckage from a World War II torpedo boat was tossed up from the sea in the Solomon Islands after a powerful 8.1 earthquake hit the area in early April, an official said Friday.
Jay Waura of the National Disaster Management Office said the explosive-laden boat was exposed when reefs were pushed up three meters (10 feet) above sea level by the April 2 quake, which caused a devastating tsunami in the western Solomon Islands that killed 52 people.
The Solomons' coastline is still littered with decaying military wrecks from World War II, including the torpedo patrol boat commanded by U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
"My team members believe that this boat could have been one of those U.S. torpedo boats such as the famous PT-109, which the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy had served aboard during the war," Waura said.
Kennedy's boat was sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Blackett Strait in August 1943 off Gizo, the main town of western Solomon Islands. The Solomons' main island, Guadalcanal, was the scene of fierce World War II fighting.
Waura said people on Rannonga island showed his team the wreckage sitting on dry ground.
"We were amazed by this finding, as previously this wreckage had long been sitting under the sea and rusting in peace without anyone knowing about it," New Zealand Press Association quoted Waura as saying.
Only the boat's hull with its deadly cargo of explosives remained intact, he said.
Waura said a Solomon Islands Police Force bomb disposal unit would be sent to the island to safely detonate the explosives.
Kennedy was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy serving in the Pacific when his PT-109 was cut in two by the Japanese destroyer. Two crew were killed, but Kennedy and the vessel's other survivors clung to the wreckage before swimming to a nearby island. The experience earned Kennedy the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
Wreckage from PT-109 was found in 2002 by shipwreck hunter Robert Ballard, who also found the Titanic as well as other notable sunken ships.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/27/quake.pt.boat.ap/index.html
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Wreckage from a World War II torpedo boat was tossed up from the sea in the Solomon Islands after a powerful 8.1 earthquake hit the area in early April, an official said Friday.
Jay Waura of the National Disaster Management Office said the explosive-laden boat was exposed when reefs were pushed up three meters (10 feet) above sea level by the April 2 quake, which caused a devastating tsunami in the western Solomon Islands that killed 52 people.
The Solomons' coastline is still littered with decaying military wrecks from World War II, including the torpedo patrol boat commanded by U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
"My team members believe that this boat could have been one of those U.S. torpedo boats such as the famous PT-109, which the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy had served aboard during the war," Waura said.
Kennedy's boat was sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Blackett Strait in August 1943 off Gizo, the main town of western Solomon Islands. The Solomons' main island, Guadalcanal, was the scene of fierce World War II fighting.
Waura said people on Rannonga island showed his team the wreckage sitting on dry ground.
"We were amazed by this finding, as previously this wreckage had long been sitting under the sea and rusting in peace without anyone knowing about it," New Zealand Press Association quoted Waura as saying.
Only the boat's hull with its deadly cargo of explosives remained intact, he said.
Waura said a Solomon Islands Police Force bomb disposal unit would be sent to the island to safely detonate the explosives.
Kennedy was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy serving in the Pacific when his PT-109 was cut in two by the Japanese destroyer. Two crew were killed, but Kennedy and the vessel's other survivors clung to the wreckage before swimming to a nearby island. The experience earned Kennedy the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
Wreckage from PT-109 was found in 2002 by shipwreck hunter Robert Ballard, who also found the Titanic as well as other notable sunken ships.
Comments
It's almost unbelievable that there'd be enough left of a PT Boat ...
'cepten for the engine(s) number. They were made of plywood.
We still have a couple of them running around the harbor here - some
outfit used to use them for whale watching boats about 25 years ago.
Occasionally I've seen at least one opened up on the ocean on a calm day
... still beautiful but I can't imagine the fuel they gulp with those twin V-12s,
1200 h.p., Packard Marine engines.
Too rich for my sporting blood!
[8D]
Sorry to hear they blew the torpedo boat up instead of removing the torpedos and salvaging what they could of it.
Read that yesterday.
It's almost unbelievable that there'd be enough left of a PT Boat ...
'cepten for the engine(s) number. They were made of plywood.
We still have a couple of them running around the harbor here - some
outfit used to use them for whale watching boats about 25 years ago.
Occasionally I've seen at least one opened up on the ocean on a calm day
... still beautiful but I can't imagine the fuel they gulp with those twin V-12s,
1200 h.p., Packard Marine engines.
Too rich for my sporting blood!
[8D]
There were 3 Alison V-12 engines, one for each screw. The engines were the same as were used on the early P-51 Mustangs, before they put the Rolls Royce in the 51. That's why the PT boats used av-gas. Each carried 4 torpedos, the earlier ones using the same torps as submarines, launched by a gunpowder charge.
After a lot of boats were destroyed by tube fires caused by the gunpowder charge igniting the oil lubricant on the torpedo, and a lot of missed shots because of the inaccuracy of the torpedos from that platform, PT crews experimented, and developed ways to successfully fire torpedo-bomber torpedos, which were larger and more accurate, from roll-off racks that just dropped the torps into the water along side the boat.
The standard Elco 80-foot PT boats had 2 turrets, one fore on the starboard side of the "wheel house", and one amidships on the port side of the engine room hatch, that mounted twin .50 BMGs, and a 20mm AA cannon on the rear deck.
Each boat had a crew of 12 that consisted of two officers and 10 enlisted men.
that was what my uncle told me, he was on one.
I thought the reason they changed from a gunpowder charge, was the flash of the powder could give them away on a dark night attack.
that was what my uncle told me, he was on one.
That was another reason. Just as true, but one of the big problems they faced was the empty tubes catching fire and leaving a nice flaming torch that could be seen for miles at night.