Wikipedia
A PT boat (short for Patrol Torpedo boat) was a torpedo-armed fast attack craft used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the war by ineffective torpedoes, limited armament, and comparatively fragile construction that limited some of the variants to coastal waters.
The PT boat was very different from the first generation of torpedo boat, which had been developed at the end of the 19th century and featured a "displacement" hull. These first generation torpedo boats rode low in the water, displaced up to 300 tons, and had a top speed of . During World War I the US and UK developed the first high-performance motor torpedo boats (often with top speeds over ) and corresponding torpedo tactics, but these projects were all quickly disbanded with the Armistice. World War II PT boats continued to exploit some of the advances in planing hull design borrowed from offshore powerboat racing and were able to grow in size due to advancements in engine technology.
During World War II, PT boats engaged enemy warships, transports, tankers, barges, and sampans. As gunboats they could be effective against enemy small craft, especially armored barges used by the Japanese for inter-island transport. Several saw service with the Philippine Navy, where they were named "Q-boats" most probably after President Manuel L. Quezon
Primary anti-ship armament was four 2,600 pound (1,179 kg) Mark 8 torpedoes. Launched by 21-inch Mark 18 (530 mm) torpedo tubes, each bore a 466-pound (211 kg) TNT warhead and had a range of 16,000 yards (14,630 m) at 36 knots (66 km/h). Two twin M2 .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns were mounted for anti-aircraft defense and general fire support. Some boats shipped a 20 mm Oerlikon cannon.
Propulsion was via a trio of Packard 4M-2500 and later 5M-2500 supercharged gasoline-fueled, liquid-cooled marine engines.
Nicknamed "the mosquito fleet" – and "devil boats" by the Japanese – the PT boat squadrons were heralded for their daring and earned a durable place in the public imagination that remains strong into the 21st century.
Usage examples of "pt boat".
So I rode a PT boat, one of four with a destroyer escort carrying medical personnel.
There had been plenty of empty whiskey bottles in Langford's trunks, and the PT boat had carried more coal oil than they could ever need for the turbine.
Being in command of a PT boat squadron was infinitely better than being, for example, a morale officer, or a VD control officer, which is usually what happened to officers who incurred Admiral Wagam's displeasure.
After a few minutes, the teen bobbed into sight about sixty feet behind the PT boat.
He pointed at the black dinghies and canoe bobbing beside the PT boat.
On board each swift sixty-six-foot aluminum-hulled PT boat were torpedoes packing a deadly wallop, each fitted with warheads containing 550 pounds of TNT.
The PT boat ground its way through, making a great churned wake and taking even what little sea there was over the bow.
We could fly it or move it by PT boat, which would require a pilot-navigator familiar with Vietnamese waterways.
From what Jon could see, the deck of the old PT boat appeared deserted.
Then, as soon as Sparky finishes doing the rainbow yawn, I tells him to get on the radio to a friend of mine who is in the quartermaster corps, and I gives him a list of things to place on the PT boat which is coming to get us.
Coming on the scene before dawn, seeing the flaming hulks drifting on the sea, hearing the anguished radio exchanges among the doomed ships, the admiral turned and departed, after sustaining one PT boat torpedo hit on a cruiser.
But the minute he boarded that PT boat, the Army started dealing directly with General Skinny Wainwright, in effect taking him out from under MacArthur's command.