Yep thats the name. The same fleet of PTF’s was at Chesapeake Yacht center for a time as well. Now it appears one has returned. If I can get down and into the yard freely I will take some pics next week.
They have a boat ramp that’s open to the public so it shouldn’t be a problem to get down there.
Hi Guys - Saw a link back to my website, I’m a newby here. A couple of comments:
Those boats at Great Bridge were Nasty’s and one Trumpy (Probably PTF-18). They had double planked mahogany wood hulls, not metal, fiberglass or “plywood”. PTF-17 is on outdoor display at the Naval museum in Buffalo NY, not at Battleship Cove MA. PTF-19 seems to be in long term storage for restoration last I saw. Same for PTF-3 in Deland FL. I think one of the Great Bridge boats went to the UK, the rest were scrapped. Some pix of PTF’s 17, 18 and 19 here with some background and post-war training ops history.
http://www.n6cc.com/trumpy_ptf17
Some pix of weapons training aboard:
http://www.n6cc.com/ptf-gunnery
Some more Ops photos here:
http://www.n6cc.com/ptf-gunnery
Surprised to hear that another one may have survived! Nice forum, thanks,
SidSquid
Here are some pics of the Nasty class PTF at Chesapeake Yachts. I took these a few days ago. I have more but this site will only let new users upload one file. It looks like PTF-10 but but not sure.
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is that the only survivor of the seven there originally?
looks to me to be a restoration which would require unlimited resources to accomplish. Makes the DAUNTLESS look like a vastly better value if someone is seeking an ex Navy vessel to do something unique with
Upload the images to imgur then save, then copy the BBcode for forums and paste here in the editor/composer at the bottom. That way the images are not hosted on this server. If you have any trouble I can help. Do you have photos of the deck, galley, berthing compartment, wheel house, and machinery space?
Copy - That’s for sure.
I did that but still got a message back saying I can only upload one image
at a time for some reason. Let me know if you can see these.
Thanks!
No cant see them - I just sent you a message. Thanks.
Thanks for those pictures Tracy_Turner and DSD:
Sad state of this boat though.
Here is what is known about the different PTF boats and their status per 2001:
http://www.ptfnasty.com/ptfBoats.html
PTF-10:
There is mystery around PTF-10, which may have been busted by those pictures:
http://www.ptfnasty.com/ptf10.html
Or has it just been deepened?? If this is PTF-10, where does the story of her demiss off Vitenam come from?? What about her sale to England??
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Here is a statement from a Nasty fan. (found on the quoted website above)
I can vouch for that, haven done testing of the KNM Tjeld at 52 kts. in rough seas off the Norwegian coast, near Bergen. The g-meter under the wheelhouse showed a max. of 4.5.
Here is what could have been:
Good one ombugge.
In another thread Kennebec Captain posted about the US Navy Firing Computer of old, which reminded me of the Torpedo Aiming Device we had on the Tjeld class MTBs.
I found this picture of the bridge of a Tjeld class MTB, which brought back memories from a long time back:
I was Coxswain on the Tjeld and Gribb in 1965-66, so this is familiar. The main difference is that this boat has a hood that can be either raised or lowered, while we had a totally open bridge.
As Coxen, my place was at the wheel, with the Commander operating the throttles.
The black thing there is a double barreled Torpedo Aiming Device.
The Torpedo firing device is at the centreline, with handles to fire either all or individual torpedo tubes.
The Commander would set the aiming device and it was my job to steer to keep the target lined up with the two “pins” while racing in for attack at 40-45 kts.
We would train with dummy torpedos against towed targets, which we would lasso and tow back to base, or to the depot ship.
We only got to fire live torpedos twice during my 15 months in the Navy, but not against actual moving targets, only against rock walls. It was customary for one of the boats in the squadron to be assigned to race in to scoop up fish that floated up from the explosion.
One time we were assigned this task when the torpedo (which was WWII German T2 type) did not explode. I never used more force on the wheel than when we realized that the damned thing was a dud, but was down there and could explode at any time.
The steering gear on the Tjeld class boats was a story in itself. During the design phase they were looking at minimizing weight on everything, so also the steering gear.
They looked at the Tennfjord type as the most promising, but asked Mr, Tennfjord for permission to modify his patented steering gear to reduce the total weight by 70 kg.
He replied that he could make them a steering gear that would weigh less than 70 kg. total if the were interested. What he came up with was a hand powered screw pump on the bridge and a single cylinder that operated both rudders. No booster pump and 65 kg incl. the hydraulic oil.
An extra bonus that nobody had though of was that a normal person couldn’t apply enough power on that small wheel to where the boat would capsize due to excessive rudder angle at high speed.
No need to watch pressure gauges, or any complex system to control hydraulic pressure vs.speed.
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The original PT 73 was a Higgins-built boat and looked different from this. So this would be the PT 694, a Vosper-design boat built by Annapolis Yacht Co, and used in the movie McHale’s Navy to represent PT 73.
She was still in original form in the 1960’s because she had been bought by the Hughes Aircraft Company as a tender to accompany the “Spruce Goose”. Revue Studios bought her in 1962, and after the series was over, she became a sportfishing boat out of Los Angeles, officially named PT 73 (ON 251693). She eventually received a disfiguring deckhouse to better suit her trade, but still couldn’t compete with built-for-the-purpose boats despite her historical significance. In 1993 she was donated to a group called the American Patrol Boats Museum for preservation. Unfortunately, her delivery crew anchored her off Santa Barbara on the trip to the SF Bay area, and she blew ashore and broke up that same evening, March 25.
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Interesting posts on the Tjeld Cl from you. I am a norwegian presently working on an article on the early phase of the Tjeld cl, and the US purchase of the Nasties. I would like to get in contact with you. Here is my Facebook site. perhaps you can contact me there?
Uh Oh
Ok. Yeah. Eight years later. Like, WTF. But I had read this in Proceedings in 1992, and had a question at the time. . .So here it is. How the hell did MADDOX detect a surface contact at 42 miles? The SPS 10 radar, on a good day, was a 18-20 mile detector of DD sized contacts. Yeah, there were some special ducting days in the Gulf [I was a radarman on two FRAM DD’s in the Gulf in 1971 & 1972. . .