Wooden Boats And Iron Men

For wooden boat lovers, the name is synonymous with boats designed with an unerring eye for beautiful and balanced lines, and performance to match. It brings back memories of idyllic holidays afloat in rented motor cruisers; the race-winning Halvorsen brothers, their superb racing yachts, Peer Gynt, Anitra V and Freya; and the Halvorsen-built Gretel; and the boats of World War II - fast 38s, 62s and Fairmiles, and the motor cruiser that sank the Japanese mini submarine in Sydney Harbour.

Naval combat narrative is the heart of this book: Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Bougainville, the Mediterranean sea, the English Channel, the Philippines - historic operations in which the PT boats would win fame, glory, and a place in history. Encyclopedic in scope, this is the definitive work on the history of PT boats. W2537HB - $35.50

Hastily built at the onset of World War II to stop German U-boats from taking their toll on Allied shipping, the 110-foot wooden subchasers were the smallest commissioned warships in the U.S. Navy, yet they saw as much action as ships ten times their size. In every theater of war these “expendable” workhorses of the fleet escorted countless convoys of slow-moving ships through submarine-infested waters, conducted endless mind-numbing antisubmarine patrols, and were used in hundreds of amphibious operations. Some subchasers worked as gunboats to search for and destroy enemy barges. Others rescued downed airmen and retrieved drowning soldiers under heavy enemy fire. During the German occupation of Norway, three American-built subchasers and their Norwegian crews came to be known as “The Shetlands Bus” for their clandestine work as ferries—the only link between Norway and the free world. This book, written by the commander of one of the subchasers, defines their place in naval history and gives readers a taste of life on board the wooden warships. Ringing with authenticity, it describes the cramped quarters and unforgiving seas as well as the tenacious courage and close bonds formed by the men as they sought out the enemy and confronted nature. Long overshadowed by the larger, faster warships and more glamorous PT boats of World War II, subchasers have been mostly forgotten. This work restores the plucky little ships to their hard-earned status as significant members of the fleet.

When the author found two letters written by her now deceased father while he was on the battlefront of World War II, she knew she had to find a World War II veteran still living amongst us and tell his story. She found her veteran.Every veteran has a story. This is the life account of a World War II PT sailor whose love for the motor torpedo boat has lasted over seventy years. When the eighteen-year-old Oklahoman stepped onto the deck of the PT boat for the first time in 1944, his life was forever entwined with the PT boat.This is also the story of the rescue of PT-658 when a group of silver-haired Navy veterans set out to find and restore a surviving motor torpedo boat. When they found PT-658, she was half sunk and rotting in an estuary of San Francisco Bay. Through the efforts of this PT sailor and other veteran sailors and volunteers, the grand lady is back. PT-658 is the only fully operational World War II PT boat remaining in the world.

We thought we had it tough with a test. As history shows, politics was at one time the only way on to the patrol. I can only guess what must have been required in order to be appointed. Politicians could tell you or your family that his quota for this year was filled but perhaps next year he could do something. They could put that particular carrot on a stick and dangle it for a solid year. All politicians need to be elected or re-elected, so one may have been asked to help in some small way. Perhaps they might work the polls, offer to distribute literature, walk the streets campaigning for the man, or offer a child up as a sacrificial lamb if need be. Of course, there were never any blood alters found in the ruins of old Atlantic City, but a dagger or two have shown up and "et tu Brutus" was heard uttered after many an election.All who were lifeguards, be it for a single year, a decade, or in some cases more than half a century, are the reason sons and daughters were born and some families even exist today. We did, in one very important way, alter the world. We saved lives. We shared in helping Atlantic City to become the Queen she was. This is the tradition of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol.