*JimH* wrote:
I found this at another boating site. The only fully restored and
operational PT boat in existence.
Nice site with pictures and facts of the boat.
http://www.savetheptboatinc.com/
Omigosh.
It would probably cost less to buy that boat than to run it! :-)
500 gph? Wowzers.
From the website:
3000 gallons of 100-octane aviation gasoline (AVGAS) is enough to last
12 hours or 520 miles with engine speed limited to 2000 rpm. This works
out to about 66 gallons of gasoline per hour, per engine at cruising
speed of 35 knots. At maximum rpm, achieving 42+ knots, each engine
consumes 166 gallons (or 500 gallons for all 3 engines) per hour. (3000
gallons lasts about 6 hours at top speed!) The gasoline is held in four
750 gallon self sealing rubber-lined gas tanks. PT658 had her 2 after
gasoline tanks removed, so capacity is cut in half down to only 1500
gallons of gas.
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My "big" brother was a crewman on board a PT in the Phillipines from '43
thru '45 and saw action in 3 or 4 major sea battles. The above
description pretty much conforms to his stories about the boats. He
said that one of the Japs favorite tricks was to get a destroyer between
2 PTs running together and try to run one of them out to sea where they
would run out of gas and be taken prisoner without a shot being fired.
A Jap destroyer separated his boat during one patrol and they had to
beach it on Mindora and go inland after destroying the boat on the
beach. He was very proud of his service aboard these boats and told how
close the crew became to each other. Like family.