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 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, but retained two 40-millimeter Bofors cannon anti-aircraft guns fitted fore and aft. The refit also added 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, Rhode Island. 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