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» Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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» Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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» Topic: PT Boats in the Great Lakes
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I'm trying to work through some type of message board failure - hope this works

Trying to recreate wfzimmerman's post

I've salvaged bits and pieces and trying to re-create it - - If the message re-shows it worked, if not you can't be reading this, because it doesn't exist

Dick . . .

Posted By: Dick | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 11:36am
Total Posts: 1487 | Joined: Aug 27, 2006 - 6:36pm

As a Michigan resident I wonder
1) were PT boats ever stationed on the Great Lakes (Chicago?) and
2) where is the nearest actual preserved PT boat?
Michigan has a nice WW2 submarine, the Silversides, in Muskegon.

Posted By: wfzimmerman | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 11:37am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

I don't know about any PTs being stationed there. BUT ... one or two of the pre-war experimental boats were built by Fisher Boats in Michigan and I believe that the just-post-war bond tour did go through the Great Lakes, but I could be mistaken about that point.

Does this help?

Garth

Posted By: TGConnelly | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 11:38am
Total Posts: 287 | Joined: Dec 19, 2010 - 11:45pm

Ahhhhhh . . .

It worked.

Dick . . .

Posted By: Dick | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 11:39am
Total Posts: 1487 | Joined: Aug 27, 2006 - 6:36pm

Hi Fred . . .

I'm not aware of any U.S. PT boats being stationed in the Great Lakes, however maybe a Bond Drive visit by a group.

The few boats remaining (U.S.) boats ELCO and Higgins) can be found in these directions -

[b]Head East to:[/b] This website's (PT Boats, Inc.) PT Boat Museum at Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts. Here PT Boats Inc., has on static display two restored boats: an ELCO 80' PT-617 and a Higgins 78' PT-796. One of our message board members, Donald Shannon, PT Boat Curator at the museum, is in charge of day to day managing and overseeing the boats and any work required on the boats.

[url]http://www.battleshipcove.org/pt-museum-history.htm[/url]

[b] Head West to:[/b] Portland Oregon and the gang at Save the PT Boat, Inc., They oversee and manage the day to day care for a completely restore and I might say a completely operational Higgins 78' boat PT-658. One of very involved message board member, Jerry Gilmartin is heavily involved with PT-658.

[url]http://www.savetheptboatinc.com/index.htm[/url]

[b]Head Southwest to:[/b] Fredericksburg, Texas and The National Museum of the Pacific. They have another restore Higgins PT309 and has it on static display;

[url]http://www.nimitz-museum.com/combat_zone.htm[/url]

[b]Heat South to:[/b] New Orleans, Louisiana to The National World War II Museum. They are in the process of restoring another Higgins 78' PT 305. However I don't think it was on display.

[url]http://www.nationalww2museum.org/exhibitions/the-national-world-war-ii.html[/url]

Dick . . .

Posted By: Dick | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 11:41am
Total Posts: 1487 | Joined: Aug 27, 2006 - 6:36pm

[b]I for got to Mention,[/b] The Fleet Obsolete in New York. It is heavily involved in several PT Boat restorations projects including an ELCO 80' PT-615, ELCO 77' PT-48, Higgins PT-459. They also operate-for-profit PT-728 A restored Vosper to look like an ELCO 80. The typical Vosper was a British designed boat for Lend Lease that were built by several U.S. companies and shipped off to the U.K. and U.S.S.R. You might know the 1960's TV comedy" McHale's Navy" they used a Vosper as a U.S. PT boat.

[url]http://www.pt728.com/Fleetobsolete.html[/url]

Dick . . .

Posted By: Dick | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 12:01pm
Total Posts: 1487 | Joined: Aug 27, 2006 - 6:36pm

Hi all, I'm new to the board but have been lurking for some time. What a great site and thanks to all the members and those that have served our Country. I've never had anything to contribute, I've alway's used the search to find any info. I finally have somthing to add, as small as it may seem. I grew up in Toledo Ohio on the lake. When I was 8 or 9 years old in 1958 or 1959, our Cub Scout Pak toured a PT Boat. At least that was what we were told it was, I was to young to know any better. That boat dwarfed every other boat in that marina. To a 8 yr old it was huge. I want to say it was at either Port Clinton or Put In Bay. Often wondered what ever happened to that boat. Thanks

DAN

Posted By: DAN LEWANDOWSKI | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 3:16pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Sorry for the second post but the edit feature doesn't seem to work.
The boat I mentioed in the above post was privately owned.

DAN

Posted By: DAN LEWANDOWSKI | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 3:26pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Welcome DAN . . .

Never be too shy to chime in - got a question got an answer or just curious - we will surely try to entertain you and each other. Specially our Vets, who have giant hearts, answers, great tales and the funniest stories - We lov’em all.

Dick . . .

Posted By: Dick | Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 3:53pm
Total Posts: 1487 | Joined: Aug 27, 2006 - 6:36pm

I'll have to add these stops to my travel itinerary.

I googled around trying to find out the boat? in Toledo ... didn't find it, but came across this in the Cleveland Plain Dealer

[url]http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/01/george_holasek_85_recalls_time.html[/url]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/01/george_holasek_85_recalls_time.html

Posted By: wfzimmerman | Posted on: Jun 11, 2009 - 5:13am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Answering my own question

[url]http://www.williammaloney.com/Dad/WWII/MiltWWII/NavigatingTheLocks3/index.htm[/url]

PT boats in Detroit October 1945.

Posted By: wfzimmerman | Posted on: Jun 11, 2009 - 5:19am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Wow. Thanks for sharing that with us. It's easy to understand why they have such a hard time talking about their experiences in combat. After all these years they still get choked up over the loss of fellow crew member.
Dave

David Waples

Posted By: David Waples | Posted on: Jun 11, 2009 - 3:44pm
Total Posts: 1680 | Joined: Jan 2, 2007 - 9:55pm

Author Topic: PT Boats in the Great Lakes

wfzimmerman

Full Member Posted on: Jun 11, 2009 - 8:19am
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answering my own question

http://www.williammaloney.com/Dad/WWII/MiltWWII/NavigatingTheLocks3/index.htm

PT boats in Detroit October 1945.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Posts: 12 | Joined: Jan 29, 2009 - 8:57pm | IP Logged

Hi there again.

I remember seeing those images somewhere before - perhaps on this site. Anyway, after looking at them again I think i have a great use for some of the female and male civilian figures I have from Master Box. Just think oabout it - a 1/35 scale radio contolled PT boat model running on the pond with a group of civilians on the deck.

Cheers from Peter.

"Give me a faster PT boat for I'd like to get out of harm's way!"

Posted By: PeterTareBuilder | Posted on: Jun 11, 2009 - 9:53pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Here's a thought. Modeling the Italeri Kit after Elco's first 80 footer, PT 103. You could have the Elco Engineers and Navy Personel on the boat as is seen in my book, before launching and testing.........

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 12, 2009 - 4:26am
Total Posts: 3544 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

Frank,

THAT is a good idea, ... but to back-date it?

Just start from stratch ...........................

Posted By: TGConnelly | Posted on: Jun 12, 2009 - 6:52am
Total Posts: 287 | Joined: Dec 19, 2010 - 11:45pm

Well Garth, not knowing the best way to do it, I would suspect the Italeri Kit can be backdated. The 103 had a 20MM on the stern, and some depth charges. The guys here on the board would know more then I about backdating the Kit. I think after this project with Stan, he is booked for 2010 and 2011, so I may have to find another builder, if I come up with anything else............

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 12, 2009 - 8:41am
Total Posts: 3544 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

Oh, yes. It is definitely doable Frank. Just labor-intensive as all-get-out.

Posted By: TGConnelly | Posted on: Jun 12, 2009 - 9:57am
Total Posts: 287 | Joined: Dec 19, 2010 - 11:45pm

What I really wanted to do was to include Building 21 (Elco) with the Crane that Stan is doing. We figured it out that at 1/72 scale it would be something like 38 inches across the facade and 50 something inches deep. I mean that building was massive. I have no room for things now, so where would I put this monster. What I really would like is to find a home for my Exhibit, where it would be on display all the time. Then I could put things into the Exhibit, like the Building 21 project............

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 12, 2009 - 12:45pm
Total Posts: 3544 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

Hey Frank,
If you had the room just think....... the boat basin AND the Crane AND Bldg 21 AND inside of Bldg 21 you could have little moving figures working on 3 or 4 more PT boats in various stages of completion!. All this moving with little motors and everything. Maybe even a forklift going by carrying some parts. That would really be coooool! Just a fantasy I suppose, You would probably need about an acre of land to build the model on! Jerry

Jerry Gilmartin

Posted By: Jerry Gilmartin | Posted on: Jun 13, 2009 - 1:25am
Total Posts: 1486 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 11:16pm

Jerry

Boy that would be just awesome. Maybe one day when I have all of the Exhibit under one roof. You could have little electric tow motors pulling out one of the boats onto the concrete roadway making its way to the Crane, then have Crane lower one of the boats into the Basin. Man, my mind is racing. My wife thinks I am nuts enough, this would just prove her point...........

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 13, 2009 - 1:44am
Total Posts: 3544 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

The first U.S. built PT in the first U.S. Navy PT squadron PT 3 was built by Fisher Boat Works of Detroit in 1939 and launched in 1940. It is 59 feet L.O.A. Had two Packard 3m 2500 engines and still exists.

Posted By: rcr | Posted on: Jun 13, 2009 - 6:49am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Welcome Dan,

Its possible you may have been aboard an Avaiation Rescue Boat. The Army Air Force, later the Air Force had two boats close to each air force Base and even some public airfeilds that had USAF aircraft.

My Sea Scout's ARB (AVR,ASR) the R37A-1357 was stationed at Wrutsberg AFB in Mich.

Can you dig up any photos?

Glenn

Posted By: Glenn Anderson | Posted on: Jun 15, 2009 - 9:05am
Total Posts: 45 | Joined: Nov 6, 2007 - 5:16am

Glen, it may have been I don't really know. I was 8 years old at the time and was told it was a old PT boat. Like I said in my previous post, that boat dwarfed every other boat in the marina.
I'm actually going to Toledo this week, I'll talk with my older brother, he may even have some pictures (he keeps everything)......

DAN

Posted By: DAN LEWANDOWSKI | Posted on: Jun 16, 2009 - 4:00pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Everyone has mentioned the PT boats on the Great Lakes right after the war. Those boats were on a bond tour and eventually returned to the east coast.

In the middle 1970s, three PTFs were based at Great Lakes Naval Training Center (PTFs 17, 18, and 19). Each boat traveled to Lake Michigan on its own bottom via the Mississippi River and the Chicago Ship Canal. Later, they were joined by three of the jet powered gun boats. The commissioned unit was Coastal River Division (CRD) 21. The mission o CRD21 was primarily reservist training on real naval vessels. It was activated in late 1972 and decommissioned on June 30, 1976. All vessels were returned to Norfolk NOB after the unit stood down. Today, LCUs fulfill the same role (if not as fast) as the PTFs and Gun Boats. Reference (for those that are interested): www.ptfnasty.com and www.warboats.org.

Chip Marshall
Silver Spring, Maryland USA

Posted By: Chip Marshall | Posted on: Jul 7, 2009 - 7:34pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Everyone has mentioned the PT boats on the Great Lakes right after the war. Those boats were on a bond tour and eventually returned to the east coast.

In the middle 1970s, three PTFs were based at Great Lakes Naval Training Center (PTFs 17, 18, and 19). Each boat traveled to Lake Michigan on its own bottom via the Mississippi River and the Chicago Ship Canal. Later, they were joined by three of the jet powered gun boats. The commissioned unit was Coastal River Division (CRD) 21. The mission o CRD21 was primarily reservist training on real naval vessels. It was activated in late 1972 and decommissioned on June 30, 1976. All vessels were returned to Norfolk NOB after the unit stood down. Today, LCUs fulfill the same role (if not as fast) as the PTFs and Gun Boats. Reference (for those that are interested): www.ptfnasty.com and www.warboats.org.

Chip Marshall
Silver Spring, Maryland USA

Chip, PTF-19 is just across the Bay from you on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, under going restoration.

DAN

Posted By: DAN LEWANDOWSKI | Posted on: Jul 8, 2009 - 2:18pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Dan:

Yeah, I know. I have been trading information with the owner and have had the priveldge of being allowed to nose around the boat.

Chip Marshall
Silver Spring, Maryland USA

Posted By: Chip Marshall | Posted on: Jul 8, 2009 - 2:23pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Chip, does he mind guy's like us just dropping by to look see?

DAN

Posted By: DAN LEWANDOWSKI | Posted on: Jul 8, 2009 - 3:19pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

You would have to call ahead and ask. Summer is the busy time of year around any boatyard, especially one on the Chesapeake Bay. I try to stay out of the way and come in the fall or spring, but it can't hurt to ask.

Last time I was there the boat was on dry land and covered. There was a mountain of stuff they had stripped off the other PTFs that were broken up in Chesapeake, Virginia that would be used for the eventual restoration. If nothing else, seeing the boat up like that will help one understand what the under the hull differences are between the WW2 PTs and the VietNam era PTFs (huge props, underway exhaust, etc.).

And I'll say this one more time, CALL FIRST! Everyone appreciates a little courtesy.

Chip Marshall
Silver Spring, Maryland USA

Posted By: Chip Marshall | Posted on: Jul 9, 2009 - 7:50am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Oh, yeah, one more thing. That is a picture of the 19 boat on the Great Lakes under my name in the column to the left.

Chip Marshall
Silver Spring, Maryland USA

Posted By: Chip Marshall | Posted on: Jul 9, 2009 - 11:35am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

I recognized your avatar, its a good shot of the boat.
I emailed him this past spring asking if my wife and I could stop by and take a look at the boat but never got a reply. My wife and I are at the beach quite often so I'll try another time...........

DAN

Posted By: DAN LEWANDOWSKI | Posted on: Jul 9, 2009 - 1:46pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

PT -486 was on Great Lakes

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/05486.htm

Posted By: PPF | Posted on: Oct 24, 2010 - 6:34am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

That was during the trip to Detroit mentioned earlier in the post for the 1945 Navy Day celebration. Those 6 Elco PT boats returned to Melville after the trip was done.
Jerry.
PS I think Dick W. placed movies of that trip through the locks on this message board about a year ago. You can see PT486 in them as well.

Jerry Gilmartin

Posted By: Jerry Gilmartin | Posted on: Oct 24, 2010 - 9:34am
Total Posts: 1486 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 11:16pm

Believe the link to the video is this.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRGs95WUPr8[/url]
Gary

Posted By: Gary Paulsen | Posted on: Oct 24, 2010 - 10:02am
Total Posts: 250 | Joined: Feb 14, 2009 - 6:31am

I remember being a very young man ( i am now 38) and my Dad (pt MoMM3/c) taking our family to see the PT Boats on Lake Erie. We lived in Perry, OH which is about half way between Cleveland and Penn. on Lake Erie. The boats had made a stop at Fairport Harbor and we have pictures of all of us on board one of the ships. (somewhere, have not seeen pictures in a long time). I am guessing it was sometime around 1976. I also remember the smile that my Dad had went from about his one ear to the other!!! I am probably one of the youngest sons of PT Boater Vet. I miss him and could not be prouder to call him my Dad!!!

Posted By: Scott Swiger | Posted on: Oct 30, 2010 - 7:35am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

After Vietnam, three PTFs, 17, 18, and 19 traveled on their own bottoms from Little Creek to Great Lakes Naval Training Center for Naval Reserve duty in the mid-1970s. They were later joined by three of the jet gunboats. The modernized facilities built for the PTFs are still in place, used by Navy Reserve LCUs (I believe). My avatar is a picture of PTF-19 on Lake Michigan. Chip Marshall

Chip Marshall
Silver Spring, Maryland USA

Posted By: Chip Marshall | Posted on: Jul 15, 2015 - 3:49pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

In July 3 1973 PTF's 17 and 19 were on public display at the lake front in Milwaukee. I was on my way to work and discovered them by accident and was totally unprepared. No camera. Did a quick tour of PTF 17 then rushed off to work with the intention of returning the next day with my camera. Of course when I returned the next day they were gone. Years later I met Bill Smallshaw a former Wisconsin resident who did have his camera and photographed both boats.

Wayne Traxel

Posted By: Wayne Traxel | Posted on: Jul 15, 2015 - 9:34pm
Total Posts: 248 | Joined: Oct 11, 2006 - 5:40am