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Topic: Al Ross & group - Follow up on Atlantic PT Boat colors |
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David Waples
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Mar 2, 2010 - 8:31pm
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Al,
I had not noticed that before. I'll have to revisit those photos.
Dave
David Waples |
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TGConnelly
New Member
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Posted on: Mar 3, 2010 - 6:19am
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Ted,
Hi.
By all means ... yes, please post that photo ... I don't know how to, I tried to post one yesterday and failed.
Thank you.
Garth
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Drew Cook
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Mar 3, 2010 - 7:26am
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As to whether the box-like heating units on the Elco 80-footers, situated on the forward starboard corner of the engine room covers (at the aft starboard corner of the dayroom house) -- an educated guess, from all the clues gathered from the PT reading I've done, is that they were most probably removed and ended up on the beach, once the boats got to the combat area.
During the early days at Guadalcanal, the crews of the Elco 77-footers, and then the first arriving 80-foot boats, learned rather quickly that speed was of the essence when escaping and evading the Japanese destroyers and cruisers of the Tokyo Express. The crews were always trying to get more speed from their boats. Everything of any weight, extraneous to the actual operation of the boat in combat, was stripped to lighten it. Also, most of the crews felt that the 80-footers were not quite as fast as the 77-footers.
Many of the boats had their 250-pound 20mm gun armor shields removed. The portable furniture below decks, which was pretty much only (as far as I know), the two wooden bureaus in the captain and exec's cabins, were removed. Some boats removed the cockpit's rear armor bulkhead and wing -- reportedly by some skippers to equalize their exposure to shot and shell to the crew's -- but more logically, to save weight and/or facilitate movement in and out of the cockpit. I'm sure other uneccessary odds and ends of any weight were probably beached by various crews, too.
I don't know what the actual weight of the heating units on the 80' Elcos were (although with the veterans, incredibly talented historians, authors, researchers and modelers we are priviliged to have on this site, someone will probably come up with the figure), but why would a boat retain it's heater unit in the equatorial heat of the South Pacific? Just doesn't make sense, for dual practicality/weight-saving reasons.
I realize there are photos of the boats on board their trans-oceanic transports with heating units intact, and certainly you'd want a heater unit on a boat in the ETO and maybe the Med, but in the Pacific? Where speed meant survival, and you couldn't even sleep in the oven-like heat below decks due to the consistant 90%-100% heat?
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