JFK's PT 59 in Harlem River

[dragon53]

Link: http://nypost.com/2017/05/27/jfks-wwii- ... lem-river/

[Razor17019]

Cool story. I have never heard of any other PT boat than the 109 that Kennedy was associated with. Sad no one got it before it was a burned out hulk sitting in the river...
Razor

[dragon53]

RAZOR17019:

If you see the movie PT 109 in the scene where PT 109 rescues the Marines on the beach, in reality this occurred after PT 109 as sunk and the rescue boat was PT 59 which was Kennedy's second PT boat and it was a Higgins Pt boat; PT 109 was an Elco.

[mutt71]

I just read about the 59 boat and efforts to recover whatever remains. It is a real shame that it didn't change hands and be restored before it fell victim to a short circuit and fire. I hope that they can find something worthwhile to use of her.

[mutt71]

NOT to be arguementative, but, the PT-59 was in fact a 77Ft ELCO design. I had thought it also to be a Higgins boat, until I did some research on it. It did not resemble the later ELCO 80 footer in any way.

[dragon53]

MUTT71:

You're right. I didn't know Elco made a 77' pt boat.

[mutt71]

Same thing here. I had no idea that there were several different manufacturers and hull lengths. Back inthe1950's We watched McHale's navy. Growing up, I always thought that it was an American PT Boat. Wrong. It's a Vosper MTB that was acquired for evaluation late in the war. It was acquired by Howard Hughes and was the "Chase" Boat where the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose was filmed from! It now resides on the Hudson River in NY. I went on her for about 2 hours here on Cape Cod a few summers back, when I found many photos and autographs posted throughout her below deck in the stairways and crew quarters.
Near here in Fall River we have PT Boats Inc, which has two restored PT's on display there.

[dragon53]

MUTT71:

I also watched McHALE'S NAVY when I was a kid, and it didn't run in the 1950s, it ran in the 1960s. From wikipedia:

"McHale's Navy is an American sitcom starring Ernest Borgnine that aired 138 half-hour episodes over four seasons, from October 11, 1962, to April 12, 1966, on the ABC television network."

So now we're even.

Seriously, I'm glad you corrected me because I always knew PT-59 was different from PT-109, so I assumed PT-59 was a Higgins. Now I know otherwise.

I have two PT-109 kits, the old Revell 1/72 that originally came out when JFK was president
and the huge Italeri 1/35----both still unassembled because I'm too lazy. When I was a kid I had the Revell PT-109 and the Revell PT-212, a Higgins.

[mutt71]

LOL You caught the type that I didn't! One for you, for sure LOL. Another one for the Revell 212 being a Higgins Build. It is a 1/96 kit dating back to around 1956. If it was in 1/72, I would be searching for one.

[dragon53]

MULTI71:

I had the original Revell PT 212 when I was a kid. A few years ago, I searched for it on ebay and the prices were sky high. The original Revell PT 109 sold for $2, and I bought another one several years ago because Revell still produces it.

[mutt71]

Prices for anything today are crazy.
I have a newly purchased PT-109 that is on my workbench right now. I bought the White Ensign PE set and a set of torpedo tubes from Shapeways. I have been sanding down the Deck surface to smooth it out as the lines for the planking was not something that was visible.
I have takes the torpedo mountings off of the deck and replaced them with PE Parts and the Shapeways Torpedoes. I am going to replace the kit .50's with brass ones.
I really want to to do a PT-59 Boat, but I think that I will have to find plans for that and start scratch building from there.