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Topic: Chris' Restaurant Flying Saucer |
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Jeff D
Moderator
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 Posted on: Apr 29, 2010 - 6:00am
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Those funnels by the life rafts sure look familiar.
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29navy
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Apr 29, 2010 - 12:56pm
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Since my boat picture was identified as the Question Mark, I noticed that I had scanned the slide from the wrong side as the question mark is backwards.
Oops.
Charlie |
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ReedBo
New Member
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Posted on: Jun 6, 2014 - 2:39pm
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Found on the web http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g46696-c97889/Ocean-City:New-Jersey:Ocean.City.Then.And.Now.html:
There were four surplus WWII PT boats. There were three fishing boats; the Wild Goose, the Flying Cloud, and the Gone with the Wind.
The Wild Goose was a party fishing boat and the Flying Cloud was for private charters. The Flying Cloud often ran excursions in the evening. The Gone with the Wind was anchored in the bay for a number of years before it was brought into service. Chris only ran it for one year before it was sold. It had a heated cabin and was intended for year round use. Only one can surmise why that was discontinued.
The fourth of course, was the Flying Saucer. She retained the original PT boat shape. Chris claimed ninety miles-an-hour and many people would agree. The first season was 1953 and it ran for seventeen years until the Coast Guard retired the wooden boat after a massive explosion that injured 28 sightseers. The explosion occurred August 25th, 1970 at 7:03 PM about 100 feet off the dock of the Ocean City Yacht Club in 30 feet of water. After the blast, the skipper Chris Montagna (then 70 years old), ordered everyone overboard as flames from the engine compartment sprang up nearly 2 stories. Three passengers refused to go overboard, and were taken off by a Coast Guard boat. There was much panic and confusion as some were hit with wooden debris, and the passengers at the rear of the boat were climbing forward over and on top of people to get away from the flames. The life jackets were stored under the bench seats, however, with all of the people rushing forward, it was impossible for some to get to the life jackets. Some people were actually trampled during all the panic. The incident made the headlines in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Wednesday morning August 26th, 1970.
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Tom Welsh
New Member
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Posted on: Jul 6, 2016 - 7:36pm
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I was looking for info on Chris's Saucer. What a thrill, I rode it many times as a kid. I even got on board and had a tour below deck by the engineer who maintained the engines during the ride. If I recall properly and I think it's correct - 4 beautiful Packard V-12 engines. What power and sound from those exhaust. Chris ran them at full throttle. I always sat on a side close to the back.
Then one day I was in the inlet with my 12 ft. step home built hydro (pointed nose) and Chris came by at full throttle. The nose went down in the wake and I thought I was going to sink as the nose went under, Couldn't see anything except water, so I gunned the Merk outboard up the other side and flew up and over to the next wave. I hit so hard the outboard flew off the transom, flipped and the prop started chewing the deck next to my foot.
Anyway I was towed back and can now tell the story. Man, I loved that PT boat. I also went fishing off the Flying Cloud. It was a fast trip out and back.
Tom Welsh Summered in OC in the 50's and still going down the shore.
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Tom Welsh
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Posted on: Jul 6, 2016 - 7:57pm
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I just did a little more research and found that there were only 3 V-12 engines. But it doesn't curb my enthusiasm for that special Speedboat.
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Randy McConnell
New Member
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Posted on: Jul 10, 2016 - 8:04pm
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Tom,
Nice to see that you found these older posts on the Flying Saucer. My father's family vacationed in Ocean City when he was a boy, and then our family did the same in the 60's and early 70's. We usually stayed at or near the Sindia apartments and part of the wreck was still visible in the surf at that time. The Flying Saucer did it's twice daily runs along the shore line and we always at the ready for the bigger waves its wake would cause. We only went for a ride on it once, but it was certainly memorable. I particularly remember as we were coming back into the harbor and my father warned me that something was about to happen. Chris ran the boat at a high speed right up to the harbor entrance, I guess where the 'no wake' restriction was in effect. At that point he shut the throttles abruptly and everyone got soaked with a giant bow wave. Great fun! Dad said he did something similar when MacArthur was on his boat, the 361, and he got away with it. That story is for another time.
As time went on Dad felt that the Flying Saucer was only being run on one or two engines, a fact of the cost of gas and limited engine life. One year the Flying Saucer wasn't doing it's runs and Dad found out it had hit some debris and damaged the hull. He took me for a ride in our '56 Ford, I have no idea where, and we eventually found the Saucer out of the water on a cradle being repaired. The boat looked huge to me, especially compared to all the other boats around it. Then Dad commented that one of the engines was out of the boat sitting next to it. I kept asking him where it was, I couldn't see it. He finally said, "Under the tarp next to that green car." Then I noticed the object covered by a green tarpaulin that was almost as big as the car. I never expected an engine to be that big!
For whatever reason my parents started vacationing in Stone Harbor rather than Ocean City, and my wife, daughter and I have done the trip there from Colorado several times. Unfortunately Dad is no longer around to go with us, and there are no converted PT boats running along the shoreline.
Randy McC
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Bob Steinbrunn
Advanced Member
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Posted on: Jul 11, 2016 - 12:09pm
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I, too, remember the boat - especially the noise - when I was a lad. I used to go to camp in Pleasantville, NJ, and we would be taken daily to the beach at Ocean City. From childhood memory I recall the boat cruising south parallel to the shore, perhaps an eighth of a mile offshore, but the sound of the engines was attention-getting. Mufflers - if any - were wide open.
Cheers!
--Bob |
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Dirk
New Member
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Posted on: Nov 3, 2016 - 12:11pm
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New to this forum, after watching PT 109 the other night, it tripped a memory of "PT" boats when i was a kid in OCNJ. My parents met at Bayshores and vacationed in OCNJ every summer. I can remember my Dad telling me the big noisy boat that was flying by was a PT boat. I didn't understand until i saw the movie. (I was 11 when Kennedy was assassinated) The memories i have of the boats was that there were usually two, at least for many years and one was brightly painted and may have had a big name or advertisment on the sides. They seemed to be mainly taking people for rides as opposed to fishing. But unlike the Flying Saucer below they still had a pretty large superstructure, maybe canopies like the ones used for fishing parties. Anyway it was great to find the sight and see some pictures of the old girls. If anybody can point me to the Boats I'm remembering it would be much appreciated.
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