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Michael Engelmann
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Posted on: Jul 26, 2016 - 8:27pm
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I'm the author of EPIC VOYAGE:The Greatest PT Boat Story Never Told-PT59 And Her Two Skippers. I feel PT 59 is still there where she was last moored...waiting for someone to care. She is there...fairly intact yet I can't on my own resurrect her.But from these photos and maps it is easy to see her...mistaken for a barge by untrained eyes, there she lays. If you can bring up a Viking ship and restore her, then you can have PT 59 back. If you can raise a Elizabethan ship and restore her then there is your ultimate glory. If a state or country cares enough about the past...then she can be raised and restored.There is no shame in this endeavor...only that we care enough to do something...anything...the right thing. I've tried to get the Kennedy Library involved but as part of the National Archives...they can only accept donations. They can't pay for it but they would accept it. We must come together and organize into a group and use every avenue to save our heritage, what is to my mind a national treasure.If I captured everyone whoever posted to this forum (which I treasure) and said this is the one project where we could all come together and organize and we each pledge $25 dollars, we could raise her. If you care I will propose we all become The Armed and Dangerous PT Boat Preservation Group..we could do great things...not only for us but for our children and our grandchildren and those who come after us. My book is a .99 cent e-book on Amazon but I would pledge everything I earn to this project. I need everyone to be with me on this! Thank you for this highly personal post.I hope and know I will be understood!
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Jerry Gilmartin |
TOP BOSS
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 Posted on: Jul 27, 2016 - 3:10pm
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The discussion that will not die! I wonder if they can find what color paint was on the PT59 when JFK was commanding her? Do you think there are any traces of the radar mast and was it up or down? Hmmm. Questions that need answered. Good luck in this endeavor!
Jerry Gilmartin
PT658 Crewman
Portland OR |
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Will Day
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jul 27, 2016 - 3:57pm
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SURE, Jerry....Keep stirring the pot!
Will |
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Jerry Gilmartin
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jul 28, 2016 - 2:04am
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LOL Sorry Will, I just could not help myself. Tee Hee
Jerry Gilmartin
PT658 Crewman
Portland OR |
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ThePTboater
Advanced Member
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Posted on: Jul 29, 2016 - 3:51pm
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Sounds like a plan michael!
I understand that being a wooden boat there is likely going to be lots of wood damaged(obviously), but who knows, we may be surprised by what is still in the water.
Based on photos of pt-59 after she burned, it seems only topside was affected, not the hull much itself(if at all).
ThePTboater
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TED WALTHER |
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jul 29, 2016 - 4:49pm
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Nic;
If a 12 inch piece of the keel can be saved, it is still officially recognized as a true restoration, by NHSA.
TED
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Michael Engelmann
New Member
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Posted on: Jul 29, 2016 - 11:01pm
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Let's remember PT 59 survived the Solomon Islands and was shipped from there back to Melville....
.... where she served as practice for new PT Boat recruit carpenters. Maybe the most important member of the maintenance base which was so lacking in the Solomon Islands....
Boats with patches on them, etc.
Probably with her engines removed she taught young PT Boat carpenters their secret language.Until the war ended.
Then some boats...practically brand new ...were sold for as little as $1000.00.
A thousand dollars....
If I told you she lays at her last mooring...as these photos so eloquently show....
and she's still there....
In New York City....
You would accuse me of another tall tale.
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TED WALTHER
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jul 30, 2016 - 7:35am
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Michael;
No, PT 59 and PT 47 were not used as teaching aids as PT 40 and PT 48 were. PT 39 had an engineroom explosion after being returned to Melville, so it too was used as a teaching aid for the carpenters and other trainees.PT 38 which we recently discovered was also returned, is seen in front of what looks like an engine shop, so it too, to a certain extent was used as a teaching aid.
PT 59's deck and hull was stressed from at least six months of carrying those 40mm's and 10 .50 cals plus mounts and 25 lb 5/8 inch thick STS armor plates on the original deck. Add to this, the weight of fuel, men, and ammo load out(in PT 61's log book I read an average nights mission load out for the gunboats was 400 rounds of 40mm and 5600 rounds of .50 cal), this is a lot of weight and added stress, in addition to them already being out there for a year, pounding in heavy seas. As an added note, the gunboats also carried 2 bazookas per boat for sinking barges, after automatic weapons had suppressed all return fire.
PT 47 before returning was used as a test bed by RON 3(2) for 4.5 inch rocket launchers. two racks carrying 12 rockets each were used, a USMC T66 launcher was modified by base force.
Both boats were sent to NAS Norfolk upon return to US to be used as Air Sea Rescue boats, then they went to NOB Philadelphia for dehydration tests, while both were undoubtedly repaired to a certain extent, they were not rebuilt like the others, the time line for both does not allow it. now what was done after the war. I don't know.
Take care,
TED
P.S. I also have a copy of RON 3(2)'s VERY detailed 8 January 1944 marine survey inspection, for each boat in the squadron, several months prior to decomm and distribution of the boats.
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Will Day
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jul 30, 2016 - 11:06pm
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Thanks for supplying some hard info, Ted.
Will |
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David Buck
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Aug 1, 2016 - 9:17pm
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Ted, just wondering about the images of yours on the first page of this post, looking at the second and third images if one looks at the area that we now know were the boat was one can see an object in the water, if we go to historic aerials 2012 image one can see objects in the water in the same area?
Where those images new or a little older than the post?
Now I know that the area has been restricted thanks to one of our members visiting so it is a little hard to wander around, I was just wondering that as some of the members of this board have an interest in the new hobby of drones with a camera attached then one might be able to view the area in that way if a member who lives close enough would want to do so?
D.buck |
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