PT-695 Today - More info to follow on the plans for her
future.
HISTORY:
When I was growing up in Newport Beach there was an unconverted PT boat
on a mooring near the ferry landing. It always fascinated me. The local
newspaper runs nostalgia articles about once a week. This showed up
recently. The boat was named PT Joe. It was owned by a local judge and
the only modification he made was the addition of an awning. It still
had the Packards in it. As I recall it didn't go out very often! It
was said to cost $1,000 just to run to Catalina.
Turns out it was eventually donated to the Rio Vista group. Be fun to
see it again.
Alan Sandoval
Good old LA Times. I didn't know they posted the local insert on the
web. They do.
NEWPORT BEACH
A quiet place to moor
P.T. Joe rested in Newport Harbor, both after and before some mighty
adventures.
By John Blaich, Special to the Pilot.
The motor yacht P.T. Joe was homeported at Balboa from 1946 to 1955.
Boat number PT 695 (P.T. Joe) was built by the Annapolis Yacht Yard Inc.
of Annapolis, Md., in 1945. Plans and specifications prepared in England
by the Vosper Co. were used.
She was 72 feet long, with a 19-foot, 2-inch beam and a draft of 5 feet.
PT 695 was powered with three Packard gasoline engines of about
1200-horsepower each.
These engines could drive the boat in excess of 40 knots. PT 695 carried
3,000 gallons of aviation high-octane gasoline. Her armament consisted
of four torpedo tubes, two twin 50-caliber machine guns, a 20-milimeter
gun, depth charges and a smoke screen generator. Eight men and two
officers manned her.
The boat was built for the Russian Navy under a
lend/lease agreement. She arrived, as deck cargo, at Los Angeles Harbor
at the time of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. PT 695
was offloaded and her armament removed.
Judge Joseph Marchetti acquired the brand new boat through war surplus.
She was painted white and became the yacht named P.T. Joe.
Marchetti moored his yacht, for and aft, off the Christian's Hut
Restaurant on the Balboa Peninsula, between Fernando and Cypress
streets.
P.T. Joe became quite an attraction in the harbor. Her six large engine
exhaust pipes protruding from the transom gave the impression of power
and speed.
It is rumored that the fuel cost to run Catalina and back was
about $1,000 -- we seldom observed P.T. Joe underway.
A white canvas awning was added over the bridge deck area. However, the
entire original PT 695 configuration was maintained.
About 1955, P.T. Joe left Newport Harbor for Long Beach Harbor. In 1979,
the P.T. Boats Inc. Assn. acquired her. She cruised to San Diego on her
own bottom, with a group of enthusiastic World War II ex-PT boat
officers on board. They hoped to get the Navy to transport PT 695 to the
PT boat museum at Battle Ship Cove in Fall River, Mass.
The plans never materialized. P.T. Joe was sold to a man that may have
had plans to use her in a smuggling operation. However, he was put in
jail.
P.T. Joe, now unattended, languished at anchor in lower San Diego Bay.
She sank, then was raised and used as a fishing boat.
In August 1991, P.T. Joe was donated by the San Pedro Boat Works to the
Sea Scouts of Rio Vista, Calif. These enthusiastic, hard-working young
men have restored P.T. Joe to her original PT 695 condition (without the
armament). Painted Navy gray and designated PT 695, she operates out of
the Rio Vista Sea Scout Base on Sea Scout training missions on San
Francisco Bay.
* EDITOR'S NOTE: John Blaich is a Corona del Mar resident and volunteer
at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum. About once a month, he writes
histories of interesting boats that graced Newport Harbor.
I think the date of PT Joe leaving Newport is suspect. In 1955 I would
have been 8. I clearly remember navigating my own (borrowed) boat around
PT Joe and also serving as crew on the harbor cruise boats at some time and
seeing and hearing the skippers spiel about the boat. I wasn't allowed to
crew until I reached the age of 12.
Crewing was pretty cool. By some Coast Guard rule as long as they had
under 40 passengers on the boats they needed only a skipper. If the
passengers reached over 40 they needed a "crew" member. These were boats
that had a total capacity of around 60. Realize, these were 45 minute
tours of Newport Harbor. One trip to the east end, the next trip to the
west end. You could book a 1 1/2 hour tour for a discount. I loved it!
I was just the kid hanging around at the time. They all knew me, of
course. I was 12, I knew where all the life jackets were stored, I
qualified as "crew." I really did know the boats pretty well. I should
have, I hung out there all the time. The company I "crewed" for had three
tour boats. During the busiest times I recruited my friends as additional
"crew."
On days that were expected to be busy I hung out at the tour
headquarters. Once the count reached 40 I'd be designated as "crew" and
they paid me 50 cents to work that trip. I would collect tickets, answer
questions and do anything the skipper asked. Mostly it was just handling
lines and assisting in exit and return to the dock. I was fully qualified
to do that. Since I wasn't really an employee, most of the other time I
helped out in turning the boats out in the morning, cleaning, putting out
the seat cushions, etc. I wasn't being directly paid to do that, but it
was understood that it was part of my "job."
I didn't spent all my time at the dock during those times.
We had a
"code." If I heard the boat horn sound 5 blasts I would report and
immediately be "crew." I would probably be at the ocean side of the
peninsula or maybe at my parents arcade.
I remember one time I was pissed off at them for one reason or another and
I was on the beach on the ocean side. I heard the siren call of 5 blasts
and I ignored it. We didn't have a formal agreement, (who the hell would
make a formal agreement with a 12 year old?)
I knew exactly the time frame they operated under. The boats were
scheduled to leave on exactly the hour, or during busy times every twenty
minutes. There was a five minute zone that was allowed to fill the boat if
possible. No boat EVER left the dock more than exactly five minutes after
scheduled departure time.
I kept my stance and ignored the calls. They probably called me to duty
about five times before they gave up and pulled someone off the street to
fill my shoes.
We did have a discussion about my actions. I guess this was a one person
labor action. Whatever had been pissing me off was resolved.
More later.
Alan
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