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 Author  Topic: Elco Documents on boats asembled
Frank J Andruss Sr

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Frank J Andruss Sr   Send Email To Frank J Andruss Sr Posted on: Aug 31, 2021 - 8:41am
Going through some of my original Elco Documents I found these that pertain to the number of Elco boats that were produced at The Elco Naval Division. This information was being collected for the book "At Close Quarters for Robert Bulkley

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PRJM3

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of PRJM3   Send Email To PRJM3 Posted on: Aug 31, 2021 - 12:30pm
Frank,

That's another interesting find. I always knew that my Dad's boat, PT 361, was at some break point in the Elco production. From the document you posted I see that the next six boats, PT 362 to PT 367, were "assembled by Harbor", therefor the break point after the 361. The wording "assembled" infers that the Harbor boats were something like the knock down boats produced for Russia.

I also found the phrase "knock down for Russia" interesting. I'm involved with early 60s Austin and Morris cars from England and know that their cars were often exported to other countries as "CKD Kits" - Complete Knock Down. They were completely disassembled cars that were then assembled in the receiving country, which not only saved on shipping (the kit components were in easily handled crates) but also received import tax breaks because local labor was employed for assembly. If the cars sold successfully a manufacturing factory would be established, this commonly happening in Australia and New Zealand. I originally thought this was a British concept and terminology but it turns out that US manufacturers did it too. There were also different degrees of knock down, ranging from all the individual pieces needed to build a set number of cars to some major components such as engines and transmissions being shipped pre-assembled.

That leads to two questions. First do you know who or what Harbor was?

Second, what level of knock down was used for the kits shipped to Harbor and Russia. Knock Down was probably the most efficient way to ship boats to Russia, and shipping kits to both Russia and Harbor probably freed up much needed floor space in the Elco plant.

Keep the documents coming!



Randy McConnell (Randall J. McConnell III)

Total Posts: 94 | Joined: May 25, 2009 - 2:47pm | IP Logged

Frank J Andruss Sr

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Frank J Andruss Sr   Send Email To Frank J Andruss Sr Posted on: Aug 31, 2021 - 3:36pm
Randy the boats you are referring to where built at Harbor Boat Building Co., Terminal Island, CA. Shipped by Elco and assembled there. The boats PT-362-367 were as you know 80 Foot boats and would join Ron 18 in the Southwest Pacific area. Terminal Island sits between Long Beach and San Pedro (City of Los Angeles). Used to be home of the Long Beach Naval Station and Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Both are now gone.

The boats were shipped as complete units and ready to assemble so that Harbor Boat needed nothing to make a complete boat as it was all delivered to them. Here is a couple of photos of that process, one showing the knock down parts on crates on the train and the other showing the gas assembling crates for parts

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PRJM3

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of PRJM3   Send Email To PRJM3 Posted on: Sep 2, 2021 - 7:46am
Frank,

Your collection of pictures and documents continues to amaze me.

Does this mean that Harbor and the Russians actually built the PT boats from scratch using the kit of materials supplied by Elco? I always assumed that Elco provided complete hulls, etc. for final assembly by the recipients. I did a bit of research on Harbor and found that they were a well established boat builder that also built other types of naval craft during the war - mine sweepers, ASR, etc. I haven't yet researched the other types of naval boats they built (I plan to do so), but they are types that possibly/probably had wooden hulls. That would make building a PT boat from scratch well within their capabilities. A similar operation in Russia could have done the same.

I'm quite interested in manufacturing processes and was heavily involved with different types of manufacturing in my career. I really enjoy the documents and pictures you provided whether they touch on manufacturing or some other facet of PT boats.

Randy McConnell (Randall J. McConnell III)

Total Posts: 94 | Joined: May 25, 2009 - 2:47pm | IP Logged


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