Who doesn’t want a ride on a PT boat? Think power, speed, history, glamour (JFK and PT 109). Now, thanks to a nine-year restoration by a group of volunteers at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, that will be possible starting next April.
During the war, PT 305 served in the Med. The two restored decals with swastikas on her hull means it sank two Nazi ships. After the war the 50-ton, 78-foot-long patrol boat went through a series of reincarnations until it was in total disrepair. Then the New Orleans volunteers stepped in. Now it is fully restored, down to the three Packard engines and the nickname – Sudden Jerk, earned after a hard landing at a dock during the war. The museum says PT 305 is the only PT boat that survived combat in the war to be restored.
The restoration completed, the boat was just trucked from the museum to a boathouse on Lake Pontchartrain, where you’ll be able to sign up for ride next spring for $350. See you there. Read the full story here:
