PT-59 / PTGB-1 was an S-Class Patrol Torpedo boat (PT boat) of the United States Navy, built by the Electric Launch Company of Bayonne, New Jersey. The boat was laid down as Motor Boat Submarine Chaser PTC-27, and was reclassified as BPT-11 when assigned to transfer to Britain under Lend-Lease. However, this was cancelled, and she was reclassified as PT-59 prior to launch on 8 October 1941, and was completed on 5 March 1942.
After serving in a training squadron in Rhode Island, PT-59 was reassigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Two for the protection of the Panama Canal before being transported by oceangoing ship to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. It arrived at its home base of Tulagi and served successfully, sinking a Japanese submarine by torpedo.
In the fall of 1943, PT-59 was converted into a gunboat under the direction of its new commander, Lieutenant (and future U.S. President) John F. Kennedy when the chronic inaccuracy of the era's torpedoes and under-arming of the resulting craft were both recognized. She had all four of her torpedo tubes removed, as well as her two depth charges. The refit added two 40-millimeter Bofors cannon fitted fore and aft with shields added to the mounts. Also added were six .50-caliber machine gun nests, with three on each side, behind shields, as well as additional weaponry.
The partially armored craft was then notably used to rescue marines stranded under heavy Japanese gunfire on Choiseul Island, and attack both Japanese barges and shore batteries.
Service history
1941 to 1943 PT-59 was first assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Four, the training squadron based at Melville Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center. On 9 April 1942, one of its torpedoes was accidentally fired, hitting the supply ship and causing eight injuries, but no deaths.
It was transferred to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Two on 7 May 1942. At the end of May 1942, Ensign David M. Levy took over PT-59 and the squadron was sent on anti-submarine duty to Panama to guard the Panama Canal and the Central and South American coast. In October 1942 PT-59 departed for the South Pacific on board the Liberty ship SS Roger Williams. In November 1942 PT-59 arrived at the Solomon Islands with MTB Squadron 2, numbering 8 boats. The squadron was based at Sesapi on Tulagi Island.
On the night of 9 December, Lt. (j.g.) John M. Searles USNR, in the 59, patrolling with PT-44 at Kamimbo Bay, sighted an enemy barge. As the PT-boats opened fire on the barge, Searles saw a surfaced submarine. He quickly fired two torpedoes, one of which struck it amidships. A geyser of water spouted high in the air, followed by tremendous explosions and a huge oil slick that spread for an hour and a half. It was confirmed that Searles had sunk the submarine , a vessel long, of 1,955 tons standard surface displacement.
In March 1943 PT-59 was sent forward to the Russell Islands. In the fall of 1943, David M. Levy returned to the United States and was succeeded as commanding officer by Lt. (j.g.) John F. Kennedy.
Under Kennedy's command In September 1943, Kennedy took command of PT-59. Though he had earned the right by Navy custom to be returned to the States, he chose to stay and fight in the Pacific Theater (PTO) after his second command, , was rammed and sunk by the on the early morning of 2 August 1943. At 74 feet, the PT-59 was six feet shorter than the PT-109, but it would soon bristle with far more and heavier guns and armament, which required a larger crew to operate.
Crew of PT-59 gunboat John F. Kennedy, Lieutenant, Commanding Officer (Boston, Massachusetts). Robert Lee "Dusty" Rhoads, Lieutenant JG, Executive Officer, helped test armor of PT gunboat I.J. Mitchell, Ensign, Gunnery Officer, former skipper of PT-21 that had been lost running aground on a coral reef Glen Christiansen, Chief Gunner's Mate, formerly sunk at Pearl Harbor John E. Maguire, Radioman 2/c (RM2), previously sunk on PT-109, (Dobbs Ferry, New York). Edman Edgar Mauer, Quartermaster 3/c (QM3), previously sunk on PT-109, (St. Louis, Missouri). Edmund Drewich, had crewed on the 109, but not on the night it was lost John Klee, Gunner's Mate, who crewed on the 59 in November, and was likely present at the rescue at Choiseul Maurice Kowal, had crewed on the 109, but not on the night it was lost. He was later appointed to a National Park Service job by Kennedy as President. Leon Drawdy, had crewed on the 109, but not on the night it was lost Five additional crew were assigned by Lieutenant Alvin Cluster, from the lost and scrapped PT-21
Conversion to a gunboat
On Tulagi Island, under Kennedy's supervision and with his help, PT-59 had all four of her torpedo tubes removed, as well as her two depth charges, and was converted into a more powerful gunboat, and re-designated as PTGB-1. She received two heavy 40-millimeter Bofors cannon anti-aircraft guns now fitted fore and aft. The refit also added six .50-caliber machine gun nests, with three on each side, behind shields. Shielded twin fifty caliber machine guns were placed behind and on each side of the cockpit elevated on circular mounts, and by some accounts, 2 additional thirty caliber machine guns forward of the cockpit in the front of the boat on each side. The higher caliber guns were added to increase range and power and to make the 59 more effective against both Japanese barge traffic, which had powerful guns, and heavy caliber Japanese land and shore based garrisons. Admiral William Halsey and other high ranking naval officers had concluded that the torpedo tubes and Bliss–Leavitt Mark 8 torpedoes assigned the old PTs, were highly unreliable and inaccurate; the torpedoes very rarely hit their mark against larger craft, particularly Japanese destroyers and cruisers. The new PT gunboat was given slightly higher quality radar, and a taller radar mast that could, in theory, boost reception and transmission to . Kennedy lived on the boat during its refit, and worked extremely hard according to Lieutenant Alvin Cluster, who stated, "I never saw a guy work harder, longer hours". Kennedy's gunboat, sometimes referred to as PT-0001 was the first completed, and it carefully followed the design and planning of both Kennedy and squadron commander Cluster.Kennedy helped add the guns himself in Another PT gunboat was given to Lenny Thom, who helped in the refit, and later commanded. Thom had been Kennedy's former executive officer on PT-109.
Both sides of PT-59s highly flammable 3000 gallon gas tanks, housed below decks and immediately behind the cockpit,3000 gallons of fuel in and the gunwales were reinforced with armor plate to protect them from return fire. Kennedy was aware that the PT's wooden hulls without armor plating could not withstand even a single bullet or bomb fragment, and that the tiniest shard of hot metal could ignite the gas tanks, instantly destroying the boat and killing the crew. The 59s crew set up some of the armor for live fire tests and found they could be breached at short range by .30 and .50-caliber machine guns at a frontal angle. On 7 October 1943, the five-week redesign of PT-59 was completed, and on the following day Kennedy was promoted to full lieutenant.
Kennedy's new executive officer was Lt. (j.g.) Robert Lee "Dusty" Rhoads. Rhoads later stated he was impressed that so many men (five) from PT-109 followed Kennedy to his new command. Kennedy's loss of the 109 was not viewed as a shortcoming by his crew, many of whom had been on other craft that had sunk or been run aground. Two other gunboats were also converted. The plan was to attach one new gunboat to each PT boat section to add firepower and range, though the extra armor and guns reduced their speed.
Operation Blissful
On 18 October 1943, as American Marine paratroopers first landed on Choiseul Island as a diversionary tactic, PT-59 and crew were ordered to move northwest from their base on Tulagi, to Lambu Lambu Cove, on Vella Lavella Island, a new advanced PT boat base. Over the next month, PT-59 took part in thirteen patrols, initially expected to discourage Japanese barge traffic in the north of Choiseul Island. Kennedy described his month on patrol as "packed with a great deal in the way of death". Constantly tracked by aircraft, Kennedy's refitted PT-59 evaded bombs dropped by Japanese floatplanes on 26 October, though one bomb landed only away.
Operation Blissful was a diversionary raid on Choiseul Island by Marine forces led by Lt. Col. Victor H. Krulak, on 28 October. It was hoped that the raid would convince the Japanese that they needed to send more troops to Choiseul from Bougainville—the Allies' real objective because of its airfields.
Rescuing trapped marines near Warrior River
On the evening of 1 November 1943, Kennedy was asked by Lt. Arthur Berndsten, the temporary base commander at Lambu Lambu, on the northeast side of Vella Lavella Island, if he would take PT-59 to support a rescue operation around north near the base of Choiseul Island's Warrior River. Berndsten had been contacted by Krulak, the leader of Operation Blissful, who had requested rescue for marines trapped near the base of Choiseul's Warrior River. (Berndsten had formerly skippered PT-171 when it helped in the rescue of Kennedy and his 109 crew the previous August.)
Choiseul Island became a very new Allied target, as the Navy and Marines pushed farther northwest into territories in the Solomons formerly held by the Japanese. With time of the essence, Kennedy was not able to fully re-fuel his boat. Berndsten knew Kennedy did not have enough fuel to make the trip there and back with his gas tanks less than a third full, around seven hundred gallons, so he sent two additional PT's to accompany him and provide support if necessary. Completing their Northbound route to Choiseul, PT-59 first arrived near the shore of the Marine outpost at Voza Village and picked up Kennedy's friend from Rendova, Lieutenant Richard Keresey, and Lt. Col. Krulak, who acted as guides. The officers were picked up from a landing craft near the shore. Motoring around further northwest, and following Choiseul's coastline, the 59 arrived in the rain and darkness at the base of the Warrior River around 6:00 p.m. on 1 November, and helped personnel landing craft evacuate 40 to 50 marines from a company led by Marine Major Warren T. Bigger.
Several marines were wounded, and came from the 2nd Parachute Battalion of the 1st Marine Parachute Regiment that had been lost in the jungle and trapped by Japanese shore fire during the recent raid on Choiseul Island, still in progress. The trapped marines originally numbered around 87, and had faced as many as 900 Japanese during the height of the fighting. Kennedy was reluctant to have his gunners fire on the shoreline, afraid of hitting any of the marines waiting to evacuate. The 59 acted as a shield, positioning itself between the Japanese shore battery and both the escaping marines in the water and one landing craft bearing marines, from shore, that had been damaged after running aground on the coral reef. PT-59 took aboard ten marines near the crippled craft and fed them canned peaches, the first meal they had had in days. Three marines were wounded, including Corporal Schnell who died in Kennedy's bunk that night, attended by his Marine doctor, whom Kennedy had also picked up.Kennedy picked up Krulak and Keresey in
Kennedy's PT may have slowly departed, as she carried the extra weight of ten marines. Several of the unwounded marines held on to gun mounts to steady themselves as the 59 departed. The two PT's, including Kennedy's, then escorted the slow-moving landing craft they had shielded from fire back to Voza, and when it was clear they would safely reach their destination, they left the landing craft and returned to their base at Lambu Lambu.