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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

C68730
ex-PT-38
ex-PTC-18
ex-PT-38

77' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Originally planned as PT-38 but reclassified as a Motor Boat Submarine Chaser, PTC-18
  • Reclassified back to PT-38 in March 1941
  • Laid down 17 April 1941 as by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Launched 28 June 1941
  • Completed 18 July 1941 and placed in service with Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TWO (MTBRon 2) under the command of LCDR Earl S. Caldwell, USN
  • MTBRon 2 tested the first 70' Elco boats in Florida and Caribbean waters in the winter of 1940/41. In December 1941, with 11 new 77' Elco boats, the squadron was assigned to the Panama Sea Frontier.
    Then late in 1942, with six 77' Elco boats and six 80' Elco boats, it was shipped to the South Pacific, where it was active in the Solomons campaign, engaging in many strenuous night actions with the Tokyo Express in the defense of Guadalcanal
  • Transferred 27 July 1942 to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron THREE (2), (MTBRon 3(2)) under the command of LCDR Alan R. Montgomery, USN
  • MTBRon 3(2) was the first squadron to arrive in the Solomons, and fought many strenuous engagements with the Tokyo Express at Guadalcanal
  • Reclassified as a Small Boat, C68730, 6 February 1944
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 40 t.
  • Length 77'
  • Beam 19' 11"
  • Draft 4' 6"
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 15
  • Armament: Two twin .50 cal. Browning M2 machine guns in Dewandre turrets and four 21" torpedoes
  • Propulsion: Three 3,600shp Packard V12 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-38 239k c. 1944
    Advertisement featuring painting by Benton Clark from Electronic Laboratories, Indianapolis, Indiana    		 Tommy Trampp
    Boat Captains
    01LTJG Robert L. Searles, USNR - Awarded the Silver StarOctober 1942
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-38
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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