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ť Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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ť Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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ť Topic: PT-309
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I was looking at some restoration photo's of PT-309, "OH FRANKIE". It looks like this was a first class restoration project, complete with PACKARD ENGINES. Is there any reason why this is not a working boat. I find it hard to swallow that this boat is not in the water. Why is she a static display boat?

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Feb 23, 2011 - 7:57pm
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

I may have jumped the gun. Does she have PACKARD ENGINES now? or did they go with more conventional engines. In any case, why is she not in the water. Was it economics?

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Feb 24, 2011 - 1:26am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

Frank,

It WAS a working boat.

The NIMITZ museum used it for one season and then, made it a static display.

Garth

Posted By: TGConnelly | Posted on: Feb 24, 2011 - 10:21am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Garth

Any reason as to why they would do such a thing. Seeing that boat in the water would be a thrill of a life-time for many people. It's a shame that such a boat has been put on the shelf............

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Feb 24, 2011 - 10:27am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

Frank;
The same old reason $$$$. As Garth has stated the boat was operated for a season while the expansion for the Nimitz Museum was underway. She was operated from a yacht club in Galvalston, Texas, which is 300 miles from the museum in Fredricksburg, Texas. When Radm Grojean was the President and CEO of the museum foundation and Ken Prescott was on the board of directors it was decided the most cost effective and best course for the museum to take was to have the boat on perminate static display. so a full scale diorama of a PT Base "Somewhere" in the South Pacific was designed. When the building was complete, the boat was moved and placed in a cradle, all fluids removed, Packard Engines removed(to have less weight and stress on the hull). If you go to the website; www.pacificwarmuseum.org
you can see the enginroom is now empty.
Take care,
TED

Posted By: TED WALTHER | Posted on: Feb 24, 2011 - 12:22pm
Total Posts: 3059 | Joined: Oct 16, 2006 - 7:42am

Hi Frank and Ted!
Yes Ted is correct. I went to Fredericksburg, Texas to see the PT309 several years ago, (2004 or 2003?) and was able to receive a fully guided tour inside the boat. The Defenders of America group had previously installed Detroit Diesels not Packard V-12 gas engines. Yet when I saw the boat even the diesels had been removed. I was kind of taken aback when I saw that they had cut a door in the aft bulkhead of the Officers head to provide a passageway into the engineroom. There was no engineroom gage panel or reeally much of anything inside the engineroom save for two workbenches. They also had the gas tank inspection covers open so I could take a photo of the inside of their gas tanks. Their Museum group did a great job of setting up a Flash 3D Online Tour of the entire PT Boat. You can pan up and down and all around inside the boat and really get a good feel for how it looks. I will try to link to it here. [url]http://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/PacificCombatZone.asp[/url]

also try this one it goes directly to the virtual tour:
[url]http://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/virtualtours/ptboat/tourfiles/flash/index_fs.html[/url]

If this link doesnt work it is Dicks fault! Hey Ted whats up with you not making it a clickable link? Didnt you watch Dicks instructional videos? Just ribbin you bud! Take care.

Enjoy your tour of PT309! Jerry

Jerry Gilmartin

Posted By: Jerry Gilmartin | Posted on: Feb 25, 2011 - 11:43pm
Total Posts: 1472 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 11:16pm

Jerry
Thanks for the link to the boat. I still think it is a shame that this boat could not have been on the water where she belongs. A PT BOAT is not really home until she hits the water.

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Feb 26, 2011 - 3:55am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

I wonder who writes their factual material. I noticed on one of the 309 virtual tours that they describe PTs as the smallest boats in the navy to mount radar.

This is a 56' LCC (landing craft command) boat. Notice that dome shaped thing aft of the cockpit???
[IMaGe]http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i204/alross2/LCC.jpg[/IMaGe]

These are two 63' MIAMI aircraft rescue boats (ARB25, 26) of ARB RON1 (Beach Jumper Units) at Calvi, Corsica in 1944.
[IMaGe]http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i204/alross2/ARB25.jpg[/IMaGe]

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

Al Ross

Posted By: alross2 | Posted on: Feb 26, 2011 - 11:12am
Total Posts: 993 | Joined: Oct 30, 2006 - 8:19pm

Hi you all,
Several years ago I was in touch with the group in Texas that was restoring PT 309. A nice group of people. I still have the blue coffee
mug PT 309 they gave me. When they got it in running condition I was invited to take a ride on board PT 309 as their guest. Unfortunately,
I was not able to make it. Big regret. For some legal reason I never
understand, they turned the boat over to NIMITZ museum in running
condition.
Later, I decided to do a piece on PT 309 in my vol. II and contacted them
several times but never received a reply from them.
Victor

Victor K Chun

Posted By: victorkchun | Posted on: Feb 26, 2011 - 2:12pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Victor,

Don't feel singled out by them, they NEVER responded to me either.

Mr. Ross? Could that have been just a typo? Could they have meant that PTs were SOME of the smallest vessels to be fitted with radar?

Remember Mr. Ross, they're human, and as humans, they are flawed beings and sometimes, humans make mistakes, they are not as perfect as you seem to be.

Just bear that in mind ...

I, for one, don't feel the need to point someone's mistakes when I can see that they were mistaken. It is something which was drilled into me in corporate, take a person aside, in private and discuss their errors and don't give them an inferiority complex, don't embarrass them in public.

That was the one GOOD lesson I took away from my 23 year career, and I've tried to apply it in all areas of my life since ...

Yes, that was a mistake by the museum to state that, but since they do not reply to either emails or letters; how can we show them how they have erred?

Garth

Posted By: TGConnelly | Posted on: Feb 27, 2011 - 7:07am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Later, I decided to do a piece on PT 309 in my vol. II and contacted them
several times but never received a reply from them.
Victor

Had the same experience with them, Victor.

Al

Posted By: alross2 | Posted on: Feb 27, 2011 - 7:58am
Total Posts: 993 | Joined: Oct 30, 2006 - 8:19pm

I had contacted them last year, but I think the Museum was taking tons of heat because of the decision to take the boat back and then make it a static display. I never heard from them on this issue. One day I would like to learn the full story on that deal. Not from me, but I had heard the guys did a wonderful job of restoring the boat, then it was taken from them. The Museum had no plans for the boat while it was a wreck, but waited until it was finsihed to get it back. This was explained to me by a Museum member, so if I have the facts wrong, by all means I'm sure we would love the TRUE STORY........

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Feb 27, 2011 - 8:06am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am