PT Boat Forum


Moderated by: Dick, Jeff D

The PT Boat Forum ª PT Boats of WWII ª  PT Boats - General

Page: 1 of 1

« Back to Topic Index Page 228 | Replies: 0

 Author  Topic: Patroling with a Whale
CJ Willis

TOP BOSS
  

    
Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of CJ Willis  Posted on: Jun 13, 2007 - 11:04am
The summer of 1944 we were patroling out of the Green Island Base and P.T. 242 was sent to patrol the north coast of Bougainville. We made the 2 hour run arriving on station at dusk. We patroled for some time, idling along the coast. We lookouts with binoculars were scanning the beach for anything moving. It was a beautiful moonlight night, calm sea, hardly any wind. (rare) The moon beams were shining on the ripples in the water. One of the lookouts spotted a whale that had surfaced between us and the beach about 15-20 yds.from the boat. He was traveling right along with us. He would submerge then reappear sometimes pretty close to the boat. He was big almost as wide as the boat. Occasionally he would exhale and blow quite a spout of water. He traveled with us as we idled along and played around the boat most of the night. I guess he needed company. We didn't see a bit of enemy activity that night. It was just too peaceful and tranquil for the War to interfere that particular night. I am sure other boats had experiences with whales but this was the only encounter I had on the 85 nightly patrols which I made aboard PT 242.

C. J. Willis

Total Posts: 464 | Joined: Nov 5, 2006 - 5:02pm | IP Logged


Lock Topic

 

Forum Legend

New Member

Reply to topic

More than 25 posts | Full Member

Reply to topic with quoted message

More than 50 posts | Advanced Member

Edit Message

More than 150 posts | MASTER

View profile

More than 300 posts | TOP BOSS

Email member