BACKTALK

Small Boats Among the Big Ships

ou’ve probably heard of the U.S. adapting to fill an important niche in aspects of captaincy. In battle, he oper- Navy’s famous Patrol Torpedo (PT) overall naval strategy. Originally ates alone or with other PT boats, all Yboats of World War II. Originally designed for a role in the big ship navy, with the same modus operandi. Naval doc- armed with four machine guns and four the PT boats found that circumstances trine of the day was developed for the torpedoes, they were pound-for-pound dictated a very different one. They larger ships, but the realities of the PT’s the Navy’s most heavily armed vessels. adapted well to their new role due in missions made it clear that they needed The 80-foot wooden warships served large part to the compactness of the different methods, different tactics – throughout the Pacific, in the boat and its crew. All teams must be different processes – to achieve that result. Mediterranean, and even in the English able to adapt, but change comes more Aided by their compact nature, the PT Channel. Their most famous actions easily to smaller entities. This built-in crews readily established their own suc- include evacuating General Douglas flexibility allows small teams to operate cessful processes. MacArthur from the Philippines and with less stringent operating processes, If your project calls for a PT boat, assisting John F. Kennedy’s exploits often much less. put one in place and run it accordingly. when his PT109 was cut in half by a More importantly, consider how a Using processes and procedures estab- Japanese destroyer. By the end of PT boat differed from other U.S. Navy lished for the normal behavior expected World War II, the PT boats had racked warships. Table 1 compares a PT boat of large-scale projects can easily be up an impressive list of accomplish- to a heavy cruiser. Both are warships, counterproductive – or worse. Don’t ments [1]. but the differences are striking. Crew operate a PT boat like a heavy cruiser Why bring up PT boats in training cannot be over-emphasized. or expect it to act like one. If you do, CrossTalk? Sure, the editors like Losing even one man on a small crew you’ll be sunk. stories framed with little-known bits of could be devastating if another sailor military history, but they’re an excellent couldn’t take over. So every PT sailor —Dan Knauer analogy for this issue’s Small Projects, Big had to be able to do almost any job on TLA Issues theme. the boat, just like a small project soft- A Three-Letter Acronym Corporation At the war’s inception, the PT boat ware developer needs to be able to do any job on a project: requirements, retained the basic mission of all battle- References ship-age torpedo boats: Use stealth and design, coding, information and tech- speed to sink a capital ship using torpe- nology, documentation, configuration 1. Keating, Bern. “The Mosquito Fleet.” does. Initially, the enclosed waters of management, and even leadership. Scholastic Book Services, USA: Dec. the Philippine and Solomon Islands For leadership, consider the PT boat 1971. provided opportunities to continue skipper. He knows each sailor in his 2. “Battle of Leyte Gulf.” Wikipedia their historical mission. But opportuni- crew personally. His chain of com- . wane. Aircraft and radar made it much mission, he can muster the entire crew for a direct, verbal briefing. He knows more difficult for the PTs to get close Additional Reading enough to use their powerful stings. the complete capabilities of the boat: Despite this, the PTs found them- weapons, engines, communications, and The Internet provides several excellent selves even more in demand. Scouting, performance. From the cockpit, he can sources of information on the PT boats interdicting enemy barge traffic, per- issue orders to any member of the crew including: forming reconnaissance, rescuing verbally or via hand signal. He’s confi- 1. The Historical Naval Ships Organi- downed flyers, giving close shore con- dent his cross-trained crew can step in zation . voy support, gathering intelligence, should a shipmate be disabled. The 2. PT Boats Inc . supporting ground operations, and short, focused PT boat missions allevi- 3. John Drain’s PT Boat Site . many other missions that came the PTs’ way. They soon bristled with new Table 1: PT Boat Versus Navy Warship weapons: auto-cannon, mortars, and rockets. Some PTs abandoned their tor- Aspec t PT Boat Heavy Cruise r pedoes entirely for more guns! Composition Wood Steel Occasionally, though, they were still Eng ines Th ree Packa rd V-12 motors Bo il er- driven t urbines able to slam a torpedo into a major war- Fuel Aviation gasoline Oil ship, as they did during the Battle of Armamen t ratio One weapon pe r man One weapon pe r 20 men Leyte Gulf – the largest naval battle in Transpo rt t o ope rating area Ca rr ied aboa rd ship Arr ived unde r own powe r Miss ion du ration Nigh tly pa trols returning to Multi-week cruises modern history [2]. same base returning to va rying ports Small projects can learn important Crew training Cross -trained in two Sing le ass ign men t plus lessons from the small boats. First, the disc ipli ne s; famili ar with all ba tt le station PTs were able to change their basic mis- tasks on boa t sion of hunting capital surface ships by

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