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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

PT-43
ex-PTC-23

Scuttled 10 January 1943
77' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 14 May 1941 as Motor Boat Submarine Chaser, PTC-23 by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Reclassified PT-43 prior to completion
  • Launched 16 July 1941
  • Completed 26 July 1941, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron ONE (PTRon 1) under the command of LT William C. Specht, USN
  • PTRon 1 was the first squadron commissioned, and originally was made up of experimental boats. Later, when it was composed of 77' Elco boats, the squadron was sent to Pearl Harbor, where it was in action on December 7,
    1941. Its boats again saw action at the Battle of Midway, and participated in the Aleutian campaign
  • Transferred 13 August 1941 to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TWO (PTRon 2) under the command of LCDR Earl S. Caldwell, USN
  • PTRon 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
  • Destroyed to prevent capture 11 January 1943 after suffering damages from Japanese destroyer Tokitsukaze the previous day off Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.

    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 18" torpedoes
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard V12 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-43 110k 10 January 1943
    Beached at Guadalcanal    		 Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Charles Ellis Tilden, USNR1942 - 11 January 1943
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-43
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan
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