Engines growl: WW2 veteran PT boat takes 1944 testing course
NEW ORLEANS — Engines growling, its bow high above the water and a rooster-tail of spray rising in its wake, the nation’s only fully restored combat veteran PT boat traced the course where it was tested in 1944 on the tidal basin that forms New Orleans’ shoreline.
“The wake is amazing! I didn’t think the rooster-tail would be that high,” project historian Josh Schick told curator Tom Czekanski, shouting to be heard above the three 1,500-horspower Packard engines.
Volunteers at the National World War II Museum put in more than 100,000 hours to restore the boat made in New Orleans, and five of them made up its crew Thursday.
Captain George Benedetto said boats have been a hobby for most of his life, but he took Coast Guard-required training to qualify as master of this one. Other crewmembers took a week-long safety course.