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Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

PT-174



Call sign:
Nan - Yoke - Jig - Uncle
80' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 7 October 1942 by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Launched 23 December 1942
  • Completed 6 January 1943 and placed in service as a unit of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TEN (MTBRon 10) under the command of LCDR Thomas G. Warfield, USN
  • On 24 May 1943 she was on board the civilian tanker Stanvac Manila with five other PT boats when that ship was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-17 south of Noumea, New Caledonia.
    After great effort by crewmen, PT-174 was floated off the sinking tanker and towed to Noumea. From mid-1943 into 1944, PT-174 participated in MTBRon 10's operations in the central and northern Solomon Islands. On the night of 1-2 August 1943 she fired four torpedoes at Japanese destroyers during an engagement in Blackett Strait, on the southern side of Kolombangara Island. In April 1944, her squadron was transferred to the Southwest Pacific area, where it operated along the coast of New Guinea and at Morotai. Later based in the Philippines, some of MTBRon 10's boats were employed in the Borneo campaign. PT-174 was one of these, and on 22 July 1945 she took part in a combined Motor Torpedo Boat and aircraft attack on Paloe Bay, Celebes, that caused considerable damage ashore. Following the end of the War with Japan, most PT boats in the western Pacific were judged not worth the expense of shipping them back to the United States
  • The "Hickory" was destroyed by U.S. Forces 11 November 1945 at Samar, Philippines.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 80'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5'
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 40mm mount, two torpedoes, two twin .50 cal. machine guns, one 37mm mount and one 20mm mount
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard W-14 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-174 & 168 111k Being loaded with ammunition and supplies by her crew, while alongside is PT-168 with some of her crew sitting under a tarpaulin
    U.S. Navy photo    		 Robert Hurst
    PT-174 103k Passing up 20mm ammunition at Green Island base Robert Rocker
    PT-174 210k Side elevation and deck plan
    Photo from "Allied Coastal Forces of World War II: Vol. 2" by John Lambert and Al Ross    		 Robert Hurst
    PT-174 372k Operating in the Central Solomon Islands with other PT boats from the Rendova motor torpedo boat base, January 1944
    National Archives photo 80-G-58545    		 Original photo: Naval History and Heritage Command
    Replacement photo: Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    PT-174 65k Underway at high speed, during operations out of Rendova, Solomon Islands, in January 1944. She has been fitted with a 40mm gun forward and carries Mark XIII torpedoes
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 97975    		 Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    Boat Captain
    01LTJG Robert L. Baker, USNJuly 1945
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-174
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