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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

PT-540



Call sign:
Nan - William - Easy - Zebra
80' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 29 January 1944 by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Launched 23 May 1944
  • Completed 28 June 1944, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron THIRTY SEVEN (MTBRon 37) under the command of Lt. Comdr. Clark W. Faulkner, USNR
  • MTBRon 37, assigned to Pacific Fleet, had action at Treasury Island in the Solomons from November 1944 to February 1945. The squadron based at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, from February to July
    1945, and at Okinawa from August to November 1945, but had no action with the enemy while at these bases
  • The "40 Thieves" was placed out of service 7 December 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 3 January 1946
  • Transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission in May 1946 and sold
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 80'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5'
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 40mm mount, one 37mm M4/M9 mount, two 20mm mounts, two 21" torpedoes and two twin .50 cal. 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-540 81k Photo from the collection of Alan W. Torgeson, crewmember in PT-536 Roger Torgeson
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-540
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