The Daily Mail Online

ATHENS — A restored vestige of WWII will paying a visit to Athens next weekend with the arrival of PT 728. This craft, while it never saw action, is one of the few remaining Patrol Torpedo, or PT, boats afloat and apparently the only one licensed by the Coast Guard to take on passengers for hire.

Thus when Skipper Thomas Whyte pulls up to the dock, not only will visitors get to see the boat, they can actually catch a ride on it.

PT boats were commissioned by the U.S. Navy during the 1930’s and 40’s to provide swift attack vessels for striking on larger ships. Several boat-building companies were involved in the production of these wood-hulled marauders, including Elco, Higgins, and Vosper, a British-based company.

Commonly powered by three modified Packard V12 aircraft engines, these mahogany vessels could travel at high rates of speed and were heavily armed with torpedoes, depth charges and various deck guns and small cannon. Because of their speed, maneuverability and ability to sting the enemy, PT boat squadrons earned the nickname, ‘the mosquito fleet’.

Most adults know the story of the late President Kennedy and his service with the U.S. Navy aboard PT109. A book and later a movie outlining then Lieutenant Junior Grade Kennedy’s service with PT fleet focuses largely on his boat’s sinking.

The young Kennedy was recognized for his courage in helping save his surviving his crew after the vessel was rammed in the night while on patrol in the Solomon Islands in 1943.

Kennedy’s boat, incidentally, was built by the Elco boat company’s naval division. While that company was eventually absorbed by General Dynamics in 1949, savvy observers will note that an Elco boat works exists in Athens today.

The connection is in name only. Peter Houghton, Elco at Athen’s vice president noted Thursday that the Elco name was issued to his company 17 years ago with permission from General Dynamics. Currently, the company occupies a large waterfront warehouse along the Hudson River where they build electric launches much as the original company did dating back to the 1890’s.

The original Elco company built the first electric boats in America. They later expanded their operations to larger vessels including piston-powered craft such as subchasers in WWI and the PT boats in WWII.

Very few left

PT 728 was built in Annapolis, Maryland under the Vosper license, one of the least common of the builders, Whyte said.

“Like most of the PT boats that are left,” he told the Daily Mail, “PT 728 was built near the end of the war and did not see combat.”

He noted that the majority of PT boats that survived the war were stripped of any valuable hardware and then burned, being made of wood. There was simply no longer a demand for them.

“By the end of the war they were nearly obsolete,” Whyte observed. They burned too much fuel for peacetime operations and wood boats were simply too labor intensive to maintain, especially in the humid south Pacific.

Still a few survive. Very few. The current count stands at about a dozen, and not all of those are seaworthy. PT 728’s current owner, Robert Iannucci, hopes to establish a historic foundation for the vessels in Kingston, N.Y. where PT 728 is berthed along the Rondout Creek. Iannucci and his wife Sonia currently own four vintage vessels including another PT boat with combat history off the coast of France.

Their goal, Whyte said, is to establish Kingston as a destination for those interested in the history of these war machines.

Iannucci calls his outfit ‘Fleet Obsolete’ and is credited with being the driving force behind the Kingston Maritime and Transport Museum to be located at the former Cornell Steamboat manufacturing facility on the Rondout.

Athens visit

Since PT 728 is licensed to carry passengers, her normal compliment of Packard V-12s and the high octane gasoline they required have been traded for a safer pair of Detroit diesel 8V engines. At 550 horsepower each they still provide plenty of power for the 72 foot vessel.

Captain Whyte noted that since coming to Kingston the boat has been touring the northeast extensively. He’s been surprised by the amount of veterans who remember when these vessels were in service.

“We still get a lot of guys visiting who served on these boats,” he said.

White, with a crew of three or four, will dock in Athens on the 27th and 28th of September. Rides will be available for a fee with seniors, children and veterans boarding for a reduced price.

“Anyone who served on a PT boat rides for free,” Whyte noted.

Rides will be conducted at 1p.m. and 3 p.m. both days.

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