Sipsey Street Irregulars: PT 658: The last of her kind afloat.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

PT 658: The last of her kind afloat.

Motor Torpedo Boat PT-658 is a Higgins design PT boat, similar in function but slightly different in design and layout from the more common Elco boats.

The 78 foot Higgins PT Boat, the USS PT-658 has been completely restored to its original 1945 configuration during the years 1995 to 2005. PT-658 is now fully functional and afloat. It is the only 100% authentically restored US Navy PT Boat that is operational today in the world. The USS PT-658 is located in Portland, Oregon at the Swan Island Naval Reserve Center Pier.

She is afloat and has 3 working 1,850 hp Packard Model 5M-2500 V12 gasoline engines. A dedicated group of PT Boat veterans formed the organization Save the PT Boat, Inc., and then restored the boat, to include a full armament of 4 Mark 13 Torpedoes, 2 twin .50 caliber Browning M2 machine guns, a 40 mm Bofors cannon, two 20 mm Oerlikon cannons, and 2 Mark 6 300 pound TNT depth charges.

While the restoration is essentially complete, the boat is open to the public on Mondays and Thursdays most every week when the crew is there restoring the boat. The boat has now been moved into the new boathouse (as of July 2008) and the group continues trying to raise money for ongoing projects such as deck replacement, charthouse repair, and interior detailing. Money is also needed for final boathouse improvements and to build a PT Boat Museum.

As of January 2010 replacement of the deck is underway and is expected to be completed by June 2010 for various summer festivals and shows. -- Wikipedia.

And here's a three part video on how the ELCO boats were built:

7 comments:

Old NFO said...: Very Nice! And it's truly sad that only the one boat is left...; April 7, 2011 at 6:27 AM
Anonymous said...: Another great lady. Not exactly a floating vessel but firing artillery. If you haven't seen this yet, check it out.

http://theconservativetreehouse.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/checking-up-on-iamdagny-aka-ann-barnhardt/; April 7, 2011 at 11:38 AM
Allen said...: they have an Elco PT boat at battleship cove in MA (PT-796)

I don't think it is operational but it looks nearly complete...and depending on the condition of the engines it probably could be returned to the water.; April 7, 2011 at 12:58 PM
NotClauswitz said...: That is awesome!! They need to make more! Why don't our taxes go to worthwhile things like this?; April 7, 2011 at 1:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Very nice work.

There's a pdf of a WW2 manual for 20mm Oerlikon AA cannons over at Forgotten Weapons.; April 7, 2011 at 2:08 PM
Anonymous said...: I believe that the port forward gun on the boat in the picture is actually a 37mm cannon of the type originally used in the Bell P-39 Airacobra. I remember reading that PT captains who wanted more "oomph" to use on the larger Japanese troop barges scrouged these from shot-down P-39s and had them installed on their boats. The giveaway is the ammo ring above the gun.
emdfl; April 8, 2011 at 6:54 PM
OldTCS said...: Nice! I'll have to stop there on my next trip north.

We're in the process of saving the last Adams class DDG as a museum. Check out: http://www.adamsclassddgvets.org/index.htm; April 9, 2011 at 8:27 AM

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Sipsey Street Irregulars

Thursday, April 7, 2011

PT 658: The last of her kind afloat.

7 comments:

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