PT-103 class Motor Torpedo Boat:
-Displacement: 38 tons
-Length: 80'
-Beam: 23'
-Draft: 5'
-Speed: 41 knots
-Armament: 4 21" XIII torpedoes in 2 tubes; 1 20mm, 2x2 .50 cal. mg
-Complement: 17
-3 4M2500 12-cylinder Packard gasoline engines; 1,200 hp
-Built at Elco, Bayonne, N.J.
-Commissioned 10 July 1942
PT-109, under the command of Lieutenant (jg) John F. Kennedy, was stationed in the Pacific Theater of Operations. PT boats were mostly used for patrolling, as the name Patrol Torpedo Boat insinuates, though they were also involved in some battles. This particular PT boat was rammed by the Imperial Japanese Navy's Fubuki-class destroyer Amigari on the moonless night of 2 August 1943 at the southeastern end of Blackett Strait near the entrance to the Ferguson Passage. With two crewmen dead, the surviving crew swam to what is now known as Kennedy Island.
In May 2002, the wreck of the bow half was was found by explorer Robert D. Ballard, and confirmed by the United States Navy the following month. |
