The National WWII Museum Video On Restoration. WOW!
While cruising Facebook this morning we came across this cool video posted on the Wooden Boat Magazine page. By the way, you should follow them, they do an amazing job doing fun interesting stuff on Social Media. CLICK HERE Anyway, they posted this video from the WWII Museum page, which is also a very cool page to follow and visit.. CLICK HERE
The coolest part of it all though is that this video captures the emotion of an entire community restoration very well. We have seen Craig Brooks do a short film in a very personal way, the Eric and his Wagemaker in an amazing thorough way, and now this in a community way. the common thread is always the same though. Woody Boats retain and reflect our hearts and minds!
Enjoy the next 8 minutes of your weekend.
Great video. Growing up there used to be a PT Boat on a canal in Amityville, NY. Never saw it move and have no idea whatever happened to it but I remember being so impressed with it I looked forward to seeing it every time Dad took us by boat to see my grandparents. Great that this one has been saved.
I remember that boat. It was named Banshee and I saw it running up the state channel once. I almost got swamped by her wake trying to keep up in my Boston Whaler.
Nice video. Thanks for sharing. Inspired to go to work and make wood stuff today (staircase)!! Love WoodyBoater!
Here’s PT728 on the Hudson. Looked like it had diesels. The only restored PT is on the west coast. With three 2500in Packards burning 110 octane it puts your fuel bill over the mortgage.
Here is a link to a video of PT658 on the West coast.
http://videos2view.net/PT658.htm
Jim, the URL for the PT 658 is
http://www.savetheptboatinc.com/
Great video , wish I lived closer, I would love to work on that.
Does this mean we will have PT 305 joining PT 658 as a floating working boat? That will be Awesome!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG8x8C5I8a0
I think I’ve seen a number of video clips on YouTube of these PT boats. One I remember was a cruise up the river in Washington State. That might be the boat Jim Staib is referring to. Great boats. Wasn’t a show called “McHales’s” Navy set on a PT in the South Pacific? Wonder what happened to that boat?
I remember the day they brought a PT fleet into Miami. They came down the inter coastal, under the 79th St. bridge, hit the throttle and the lead boat promptly hit a spoil bank and plywood went every where. Some Ensign probably caught all kinds of he!!
Anyone know what happened to the one listed on Trading Dock recently?
Nice site…enjoyed the PT boat video. Would of like more on the Packard engines.
Right around 1980, I was driving up in the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania and way up on top of some remote peak, I drove right up to an open lot with a PT boat parked on the hard. Getting it up there on those winding roads must have been something to do/see. I took a few minutes to look at it as much as I could (without getting arrested for trespassing) and although there was no way for me to see the engines, there were FIVE propellers. I have always been under the impression that PT’s had three engines, not five. Does anyone know anything about this propulsion arrangement or about this particular PT boat?
PT 658 restored in Portland, Or has three Packards, not five.
Last time I was in New Orleans in April 2011, I went to the WWII museum. Its an amazing place, there is a small section on Higgins PT boats and their construction. On the way out, I was lucky enough to notice PT305 in the building next door, so impressive. Cant wait for the RElaunch.
Here is a video from PT 658, the only functioning restored PT boat. This was as the Lake Oswego Wood Boat show a few years back, on the Willamette River.
http://youtu.be/cG-3kajEaFM
The people and groups that rescue/restore projects like a PT boat are to be congratulated. This is not an easy task in any aspect from technical, operational or financial.
In Canada a group attempted to rescue one of the last of our Fairmile MTB’s (Commonwealth PT’s if you will. Also called “Q” boats). They took a very restorable boat and have gutted her past the point of physical or financial return. Such a shame!
Hats off to those that can stick to it and find a way to preserve this history.
Here’s what they should look like. Q089 was built by Greavette.
Eighty-eight of these “little ships” were made by twelve different manufacturers right across Canada by companies like Greavette, Minett-Shields and Grew to name a few.
8 of these craft also served in the USN as submarine chasers.
Sean sincere Thanks for the update on the Canadian / UK. Version of the PT, what a shame that the only remaining one is. Apparently unsavageable
….I fondly remember the Penetang 88 from my younger years , a converted Fairmile turned tour boat on lower Georgian Bay.
All of which reminds me of “Top Notch” which is (was?) the last existing US Coast Guard “Six Bitter” left in the world . for those of you who don’t know what I am talking about the six bitters were a fleet of 75 foot armed wooden patrol boats built in 1924 – 1925 by the US government specifically to intercept Rum Runners along the US Coasts and on on the Great Lakes….
Needless to say the rum wars brought on by prohibition introduced an interesting and exciting” wrinkle ” into the US / Canadiian relationship….. Something that should be part of our collective memory but is now almost completely forgotten
To make a long story short last spring I proposed to the ACBM Museum that it take on “Top Notch”as a restoration project and make her a roving ambassador for the museum (which has expressed its desire to expand it’ footprint across ghe Great Lakes ) but I could not get any traction, not either from Museum staff or from the US Coast guard itself .
Bottom line, Top Notch spent much of the summer of 2o14 moored at a marina in the Seattle area My sources tell me she is not in the best if shape and thst we may soon loose her to history..
Perhaps greater minds than mine might be able to concoct a plan to bring her to Clayton, restore her and set her loose on the Great Lakes Those same often frozen waters that her sisters once prowled seeking scurvy Canadians braggarts who were running booze across the lakes in all sorts of weather and paying for it often with there lives
While it’s not a photo of the Vineyard Shipbuilding Corp Six Bitter Patrol Boat that was later sold to a civilian owner and converted onto “Top Notch” this 1925 vintage builders photo taken at the Defoe Boatworks in Bay City Michigan is basically a twin in all respects. Photo Courtesy of Bowling Green University Library
The “PT” boat on McHales Navy wasn’t a real PT, it was a Hollywood prop built for the show. All PTs had 3 motors except Huckins, they had 4 motors. Elco built the most. There are 2 PTs in the PT Boat Museum, Battleship Cove, Fall River, Mass. Both are post WWII commissions.
Nice video. What a great project. As a side note, I am from New Orleans and one thing that many people don’t know is that the accent there is not Cajun or stereo-typically Southern. The real accent sounds like the older men in this video. If any of you get the chance go to this museum. It is wonderful. Bring a handkerchief to dry the tears. They will come eventually.