PT-109

On this date in 1943, the United States Navy motor torpedo boat designated PT-109 was rammed and cut in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sank near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. The PT-109 was 80 ft long and had a 20 ft 8 inch beam. Its hull was made of wood and its draft was only 3 ft 6 inches. For armament it had a 20mm cannon on one end and two twin machine gun turrets on the other. The boat was fitted with four torpedo tubes and could knock down metal hulled ships with a little luck. It did not have radar.

On the night of August 2, it was sitting in Blackett Strait and idling on one engine so as not to be heard by the enemy. It was looking for Japanese ships returning from open sea skirmishes to these islands which the enemy held. By the time they saw the Japanese destroyer, they could not move fast enough to get out of its way. Some thought that the ship's commanding officer, Lieutenant (LTJG) John Fitzgerald Kennedy, could as well faced court-martial for losing his ship as he was honored for saving all his crew save two.
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