Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
Great videos! They left a few things out though. At one point it mentions the British wanting the boats as well, when in fact the Royal Navy invented the Motor Torpedo Boat, and had their own in production at the time. When playing German in the Atlantic the MTBs met should mostly be the 73-foot Vosper. Also, the ELCO boats were based on a powerboat design by an Englishman, Hubert Scott-Payne.
http://www.steelnavy.com/GMSElco77.htm
I think there's some confusion on the hulls. Yes, the frame was mahogany planking, and the hulls were mahogany shaved into veneer, then glued together to make a heavy sheet, but isn't that what plywood is? |
Actually the hull sides, bottom, and upper decking were a composite laminent of wood planks, not "sheet" running perpendicular, with a layer of aircraft linen sandwiched between them. The planks were cut from African and Honduran mahoganey. In this sense, it wasn't "plywood" in the idea some folks may have, as plywood makes one think of the wood sheets that can be bought at the local lumber yard or home center.
I like the old ELCO Boats, as the Chriscraft plant up the river from my great grandparents house built them, and there were a couple old hulks left from the war in the marshy area that you could get up on, but had to be careful on them, for any rotted wood you could fall through.
I wish they were still there, but the latest aerial photos shows that nature has reclaimed the area. What fun it would be to restore one of them, and finish out like the early PT-103 class, from late 42 to 43, before they were turned mostly into barge busters.