Hello there, I have just blown the dust off my 109 PT boat, and as I gazed over this old model, a question suddenly struck me.


The ropes running around the front of the boat, fine, but what's stopping people falling off the side of the boat ?


I know this question has a simple answer, that's why they wear life jackets etc etc, or am I actually missing guard rails at the sides and back, I know what I mean, but find it difficult to explain, the torpedoes have to be fired off, therefore no rails, got that bit, but where the machine gunners probably swapped and changed positions, what stopped them from falling over-board ? Look forward to your reply.

i am by far no expert on PT boats or their operation but i can tell you that in the research i've done for building mine, i haven't seen too many pics with ropes anywhere up including the bow. i've seen a few pics of boats at dock that have the lines rigged up around the back of the boat, but it seems like they ran without them mostly from what i can tell. i guess you just learned to hold on or not get too close to the edge if you weren't sure footed. i've often wondered if some of the gunners, like up on the bow, had some sort of safety line tied to them in case they slipped. some of the people that really know can give you better info though.

nice build btw.

Bill

I'm also no expert but I have one comment and one W.A.G. (wild a*sed guess.) The comment is, as you mentioned, this is an old kit, not state of the art as to research. Those lines on the forecastle might be just a figment of the kit makers imagination. As to the W.A.G. the line might only be used for the crew to enter the forward hatch. Ever thing important to get to, the hatch, the life raft, the forward mooring chock, are all within those lifelines. The kit has molded on hand holds on the after cabin so no lifelines would be needed as far back as the after .50 mount. I guess aft of that the crew would be on their own.

looking at several photos of them, there definately are mounting locations for the rope stanchions as you can see the circular pads where they'd mount. but like i said, i haven't seen any photos with the actual stanchions in place and no ropes. i would suspect possibly the crews removed them when they started mounting weapons up on the bow deck. nothing would be more of a pain in the buttocks than having to keep working around some ropes in your way when you're trying to load ammo and aim your weapon. it may very well be a case where the safety engineers were veto'd by the actual people using the equipment. just a guess though. Al and Garth hopefully will notice this thread and tell us the truth.

Bill

The original design included the foredeck stanchions, which simply plugged into the sockets in the deck. When up, they clearly impeded movement on deck, so were of little value. There were actually quite a few safety devices, though. Toe rails run on either side of the foredeck and there are grab rails on the charthouse roof and sprayshields, on top of the day cabin, and on each turret.'

Al Ross

Hello Alec, The PT's weren't intended to be used in really rough weather. Looking at some photos, the rope stanchions seem to be more common on early Elco 80' boats, like your '109'. They were removable and not rigged all the time. At the time of her sinking, the '109' mounted an "acquired" US Army 37mm anti-tank gun with carriage, trails and all (sans wheels) on her foredeck. I don't think the safety ropes would have been mounted then. The later series boats mounted a lot of varying kinds of ordnance and seem to have relied on the sea-legs of their crews, and the abundance of things to grab hold of, to prevent 'Man Overboard' situations. Al

Just like to say - Thank you - for the quick response, raised a good point or two that I never considered, especially about rough seas, its little bits of info like this that I find valuable when considering a diorama, unlike Hollywood and some boxart, you wouldn't get a PT boat mowing through choppy seas, it would probably look good though.
Thank you all once again.