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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

RCT-3
ex-PT-603



Call sign:
Nan - Peter - Zebra - How


PT-603 served the Navies of the United States and Norway
80' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 16 January 1945 by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Launched 21 May 1945
  • Completed 28 June 1945, placed in service as PT-603 and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron FORTY ONE (MTBRon 41) under the command of Lt. Comdr. Bruce P. Van Buskirk, USNR
  • MTBRon 41 had completed its fitting out and was having shakedown at Miami at the time of the cessation of hostilities in August 1945. Although assigned to the Pacific Fleet, it was never shipped to
    the Pacific
  • Placed out of service 30 January 1946
  • Struck from the Naval Register 25 February 1946
  • Reclassified as Bureau of Ships Equipment 22 December 1948
  • Designated a Radio Control Target RCT-3 in 1951
  • Transferred to Norway later that year and named HNoMS Sel (Seal)
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 80'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5'
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 40mm mount, four 21" torpedoes, one 37mm deck gun, two rocket launchers and two twin .50 cal. Browning machine guns
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard W-14 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-603 135k "Crew of PT-603 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard June 1945. Second row, on the right is LTJG Roger M. Jones, USNR. Bill Phelps, Executive Officer Roger Jones
    Photo added 15 November 2020
    PT-603 208k Conducting speed runs
    U.S. Navy photo from "Allied Coastal Forces of World War II: Volume II" by John Lambert and Al Ross    		 Robert Hurst
    PT-603 138k c. 1945
    PT-603 and PT-606 come to Chicago, IL for public display along with LST-312 just west of the Michigan Ave. Bridge
    Photo courtesy of David M. Laz    		 Chin Yu Chu
    Commanding Officers
    01LTJG Roger M. Jones, USNR28 June 1945 - 1946
    Courtesy Roger Jones
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-603
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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