Patrol torpedo boat PT-109
PT-109 was an 80-foot Elco PT boat last commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, future United States president, in the Solomon Islands campaign of the Pacific theater during World War II. Kennedy's actions in saving his surviving crew after PT-109 was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer earned him several commendations and made him a war hero. Back problems stemming from the incident required months of hospitalization at Chelsea Naval Hospital and plagued him the rest of his life. Kennedy's postwar campaigns for elected office referred often to his service on PT-109.
PT-109's sister-boat PT-105, circa 1942
PT tankroom below deck, looking forward, shows partially exposed fuel tank through open door in bulkhead on left.
PT-109 armament in August 1943; a forward 37 mm antitank gun, aft 20 mm autocannon, two twin .50 caliber machine gun turrets and four torpedo tubes
PT-109 on board SS Joseph Stanton
The Electric Launch Company, later renamed Elco Motor Yachts ("Elco"), is an American boat building and electric motor company that has operated from 1893 to 1949 and from 1987 to the present.
An Elco Electric Launch on Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks
Plaque in Bayonne commemorates Elco
Lt (jg). Kennedy (right) with crew of PT-109
