
Historical Information | ||||||||||||||||||||
Caption | Elco 80-foot torpedo boat PT-109 commanded by Ensign Bryant L Larson delivering 96 survivors from the sunken cruiser USS Northampton to Tulagi Harbor, Solomon Islands, 1 Dec 1942. Note the cruiser USS New Orleans at left. ww2dbase | |||||||||||||||||||
WW2-Era Location Name | Tulagi, Solomon Islands, British Western Pacific Territories | |||||||||||||||||||
Date | 1 Dec 1942 | |||||||||||||||||||
Photographer | Unknown | |||||||||||||||||||
Source Information | ||||||||||||||||||||
Source | ww2dbaseUnited States Navy via NavSource | |||||||||||||||||||
Identification Code | 80-G-378087 | |||||||||||||||||||
Related Content | ||||||||||||||||||||
More on... |
| |||||||||||||||||||
Photos on Same Day | 1 Dec 1942 | |||||||||||||||||||
Colorized By WW2DB |
Colorized with Adobe Photoshop |
|||||||||||||||||||
Licensing Information | ||||||||||||||||||||
Licensing | Public Domain. Please support the navsource.org project and remember the dedication of its founder Paul Yarnall. Additionally, according to the United States copyright law (United States Code, Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105), in part, "[c]opyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government". Please contact us regarding any inaccuracies with the above information. Thank you. |
|||||||||||||||||||
Metadata | ||||||||||||||||||||
Added By | David Stubblebine | |||||||||||||||||||
Photo Size | 1,496 x 856 pixels |
請考慮透過 Patreon 支持本站。任何數量都會有莫大幫助!感謝您的支持。 請幫助宣傳: 訂閱 WW2DB,掌握最新動態: |
Visitor Submitted Comments
2.
David Stubblebine says:
28 Jul 2020 01:38:54 PM
Anonymous (above):
Thank you for bringing to our attention that this photo was taken 4 months before John Kennedy took command of PT-109. The caption has been updated. The photo was reported to have been taken from USS Pensacola, herself badly damaged in the night action.
Upon investigating the question of PT-109’s commanding officer more thoroughly, it turns out the answer is more complicated than it ought to have been. The Navy’s official history of PT-109 says Ensign Larson commanded the boat from Jul 1942 to Apr 1943 but also says that in Dec 1942 (the time of this photo) the boat was operating under Lieutenant Rollins E Westholm. This is supported by the book *At Close Quarters* by famous PT boat skipper Robert Buckley (p 95) but the specific task of picking up Northampton survivors is not mentioned in either text. Lt Westholm was not a boat captain but was the squadron commander and both texts describe his being aboard PT-109 a week later during the action of 7-8 Dec 1942. For these reasons I have opted to caption this photo as I have but the possibility remains that the photo shows Lt Westholm at the helm.
Note cruiser USS New Orleans at left. While difficult to see, Gridley-class destroyer USS Maury is alongside New Orleans and what looks like New Orleans’ bow in the photo is actually Maury’s bow, New Orleans bow having been blown off by a torpedo the night before during the Battle of Tassafaronga in the same action where Northampton was lost.

28 Jul 2020 01:38:54 PM
Anonymous (above):
Thank you for bringing to our attention that this photo was taken 4 months before John Kennedy took command of PT-109. The caption has been updated. The photo was reported to have been taken from USS Pensacola, herself badly damaged in the night action.
Upon investigating the question of PT-109’s commanding officer more thoroughly, it turns out the answer is more complicated than it ought to have been. The Navy’s official history of PT-109 says Ensign Larson commanded the boat from Jul 1942 to Apr 1943 but also says that in Dec 1942 (the time of this photo) the boat was operating under Lieutenant Rollins E Westholm. This is supported by the book *At Close Quarters* by famous PT boat skipper Robert Buckley (p 95) but the specific task of picking up Northampton survivors is not mentioned in either text. Lt Westholm was not a boat captain but was the squadron commander and both texts describe his being aboard PT-109 a week later during the action of 7-8 Dec 1942. For these reasons I have opted to caption this photo as I have but the possibility remains that the photo shows Lt Westholm at the helm.
Note cruiser USS New Orleans at left. While difficult to see, Gridley-class destroyer USS Maury is alongside New Orleans and what looks like New Orleans’ bow in the photo is actually Maury’s bow, New Orleans bow having been blown off by a torpedo the night before during the Battle of Tassafaronga in the same action where Northampton was lost.
3.
David Stubblebine says:
13 Aug 2020 05:16:04 PM
One more thing about this photo: Some sources show this photo reversed right-to-left from what is seen here (including the Navy) but based on the machine gun locations on the Elco-80 PT Boat and the USS Maury war diary saying she had her port side against New Orleans, this is the correct orientation.

13 Aug 2020 05:16:04 PM
One more thing about this photo: Some sources show this photo reversed right-to-left from what is seen here (including the Navy) but based on the machine gun locations on the Elco-80 PT Boat and the USS Maury war diary saying she had her port side against New Orleans, this is the correct orientation.
All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.
查詢 WW2DB

Map
WW2-Era Location Name:Tulagi, Solomon Islands, British Western Pacific Territories
Latitude-Longitude:
-9.0996, 160.1597
網站統計
- » 1,178 人物傳記
- » 337 事件
- » 45,081 時間軸條目
- » 1,245 軍艦
- » 350 飛機型號
- » 207 車輛型號
- » 376 兵器型號
- » 123 史料文件
- » 261 設施
- » 470 事件
- » 28,491 照片
- » 365 地圖
著名二戰名言
"The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, 23 Feb 1945
27 Jul 2020 12:37:46 PM
PT-109 picked up the survivors of USS Northampton in Dec of 1942 as included in the caption of this photo. However JFK did NOT captain PT-109 at the time, Ensign Bryant L. Larson, USNR, did. Lieutenant (jg) John Fitzgerald Kennedy, USNR, did not assume captain of Motor Torpedo Boat #109 until 24 April of 1943.