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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

C73994
ex-PT-36
ex-PTC-16
ex-PT-36

77' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Originally planned as PT-36 but reclassified as a Motor Boat Submarine Chaser, PTC-16
  • Reclassified back to PT-36 in March 1941
  • Laid down 8 April 1941 by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Launched 21 June 1941
  • Completed 27 August 1941, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TWO (MTBRon 2) under the command of LCDR Earl S. Caldwell
  • MTBRon 2 tested the first 70' Elco boats in Florida and Caribbean waters in the winter of 1940/41. In December 1941, with 11 new 77' Elco boats, the squadron was assigned to the Panama Sea Frontier.
    Then late in 1942, with six 77' Elco boats and six 80' Elco boats, it was shipped to the South Pacific, where it was active in the Solomons campaign, engaging in many strenuous night actions with the Tokyo Express in the defense of Guadalcanal
  • Transferred 11 November 1942 to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron THREE (2) [MTBRon 3(2)] under the command of LT Richard E. Johnson, USN
  • MTBRon 3(2) was the first squadron to arrive in the Solomons, and fought many strenuous engagements with the Tokyo Express at Guadalcanal
  • Reclassified as a Small Craft, C73944, 15 April 1944
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 40 t.
  • Length 77'
  • Beam 19' 11"
  • Draft 4' 6"
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 15
  • Armament: Two twin .50 cal. Browning M2 machine guns in Dewandre turrets and four 21" torpedoes
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard V12 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    No image of PT-36 is available at this time
    Commanding Officers
    02LT Charles Ellis Tilden, USNR1943
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-36
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