PT-796

PT-796

The boat in 2004

Ship data flag  United States other ship names Tail ender Ship type Torpedo boat class PT speed boat home port Fall River, Massachusetts Owner PT Boat Museum Shipyard Higgins Industries Launch October 26, 1945 Whereabouts Museum ship (since 1975)

Ship dimensions and crew length 24 m ( Lüa ) width 6.3 m Draft Max. 1.2 m displacement 55  t

Machine system machine 3 × 12 cylinder Packard engines Machine performance 3 × 1,550  PS (1,140  kW ) Top speed 44 kn (81 km / h) propeller 3

Armament 2 × 570 mm Mark-13 torpedoes 1 × 37 mm gun 1 × 20 mm gun 1 × 40mm Bofors gun 2 × twin machine guns Browning M2 .50 BMG caliber 2 × Mark 50 rocket launcher 1 × fog generator

PT-796 (fully Motor Torpedo Boat PT 796 , also Tail Ender ) is the name of a PT speed boat used by the United States Navy . Theboat, builtby Higgins Industries in1945, is now out of the water as a museum ship in a purpose-built hall within Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts . PT-796 wasinscribedon the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark inJanuary 1986.

description

PT-796 belongs to the Higgins type of PT speed boats named after the shipyard , which was primarily characterized by the fact that it was only 78 feet in contrast to the 80 foot long boats from Electric Boat , which were analogously referred to as the Elco type was long. The technical equipment and equipment with weapon systems, however, was comparable. The three water-cooled, supercharged 12-cylinder engines were operated with AvGas and accelerated the PT-796 up to 44 knots with their 1,550 HP (together 3,420 kW) each .

The PT speedboats originally developed by the British were used in large numbers by the American Navy during World War II . From the beginning, they were designed as small, fast and, if in doubt, dispensable watercraft armed with torpedoes and machine guns to disrupt enemy supply lines. The US deployed 43 PT squadrons , each consisting of 12 PT boats. Around 300 of these boats were destroyed during the war, which in the course of subsequent analyzes was described as an extremely high rate of loss. In 1985 there were only four PT speedboats in the entire United States, including the PT-617, also on display in Battleship Cove .

PT-796 gained particular prominence when it was used with the identifier PT-109 during the inauguration parade of John F. Kennedy in January 1961 - Kennedy had been in command of PT-109 during the war .

See also

• List of entries on the National Register of Historic Places in Fall River
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts

literature

• Robert J. Bulkley Jr .; John F. Kennedy ; Earnest McNeill Eller: At Close Quarters: PT Boats In The United States Navy . Verdun Press, San Francisco 2015, ISBN 978-1-78625-206-7 .
• Harry A. Butkowski: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. (PDF) United States Department of the Interior , National Park Service , May 1985, accessed December 8, 2017 . 

Web links

• Battleship Cove

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 12, 2019.
2. ↑ cf. Butkowski, p. 2.
3. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Butkowski, p. 3.