PT boat re-traces NOLA course

NEW ORLEANS – The re-built engines of a WWII-era PT boat began growling, its bow high in the water and a rooster-tail of spray rising in its wake. “I didn't think the rooster-tail would be that high,” National World War II Museum historian Josh Schick shouted over the three 1,500-horspower Packard engines. The nation's only fully restored combat veteran PT boat traced the course it was tested on in 1944 along the tidal basin of New Orleans' shoreline. Volunteers at the museum put more than 100,000 hours into restoring the boat, made in New Orleans, and five of them made up its crew on its first run March 16. Museum staffers say PT-305, known to the crew as the Sudden Jerk, is the only fully restored and operational U.S. patrol torpedo boat that took direct part in WWII. It made more than 70 patrols, sank three enemy ships and participated in two invasions in the Mediterranean theater. The boat's dedication will be March 25. The vessel is to begin offering $15 docked tours and $350 rides on April 1. (Source: The AP 03/16/17)