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Sea Explorer Uncovers Kennedy's PT 109 July 11, 2002 By WILLIAM J. BROAD Dr. Robert D. Ballard, who discovered the Titanic, the Bismarck and dozens of other lost ships, yesterday announced his latest find: PT 109, John F. Kennedy's wartime boat, which a Japanese destroyer rammed and sank in the South Pacific in 1943. Dr. Ballard said he found what appears to be the resting place of PT 109 about 1,300 feet down in strong currents off the Solomon Islands. Only a few bits of wood and wreckage were visible above the bottom's shifting sands. Experts from the Naval Historical Center in Washington, after reviewing imagery and other evidence from Dr. Ballard's expedition, confirmed that the main pieces of wreckage, a torpedo and a launcher, were of the right type and that no other PT boats had been lost in the vicinity. The site, the Navy team concluded, "is likely the wreck of the PT 109," an 80-foot boat whose sinking became a legend of heroism that helped propel Kennedy to national prominence and the White House. "I am thrilled with the Navy's conclusions," Dr. Ballard said. "The strong underwater currents we encountered made PT 109 unlike any of my past expeditions. It was like conducting a search in the Sahara Desert during a blinding sandstorm. To succeed, we needed all our skills and technology, plus a healthy dose of luck." Dr. Ballard's expedition in May was financed by the National Geographic Society; the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Conn., where he is president; and the Office of Naval Research. Yesterday, Dr. Ballard, 60, said he planned to leave the wreckage untouched as a memorial to the two crew members who died. In this, he said, he was also following the wishes of Kennedy family members. Senator Edward M. Kennedy praised the discovery of his brother's boat as careful and respectful. "Finding PT 109 is especially meaningful to the members of my family, but we also believe it represents the story of all the brave young men who fought with such courage in the South Pacific," Mr. Kennedy said in a statement. Asked about the significance of the find, Dr. Ballard, a Navy veteran, talked of the boat's young skipper, Lieutenant Kennedy, then 26 and seeing combat for the first time. "It was clear this was the turning point in this man's life," Dr. Ballard said, helping Kennedy go on "to become a big part of American history." PT 109 was a patrol torpedo boat built in Bayonne, N.J., of plywood. Light and speedy, it carried four torpedoes. On the night of Aug. 2, 1943, about 800 miles north of Australia, it was sent into Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands to attack the Japanese. Instead, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri rammed PT 109 before Lieutenant Kennedy could order the firing of its torpedoes. The 11 surviving crewmen, forced into a sea aflame with gasoline, floated on part of the hull and eventually swam to nearby Plum Pudding Island, now known as Kennedy Island. Kennedy towed a wounded crewman in the water, and his actions created a heroic image that aided his rise in national politics. The story was told in "PT 109," a 1961 book, and a 1962 song by Jimmy Dean and a 1963 movie of the same title. Dr. Ballard has long taken advantage of technological developments. In 1985, he found the Titanic in North Atlantic waters nearly two and a half miles deep. Yesterday, he said he had dreamed of finding PT 109 and had planned to look for it on a 1992 expedition but ran out of time. This May off the Solomons, Dr. Ballard and his team spent several days searching a five-by-seven-mile area with sonar. Once targets were identified, the team sent robots with video cameras to take closer looks. In the collision area, the team had hoped to find part of the boat's stern that had been cut off. But the bottom was too cluttered with rocks. So the team abandoned that area and focused farther south, where the boat's bow had drifted. There the bottom turned out to be smooth and sandy. About four miles from the collision site, the sonar identified an intriguing target. Robot lights revealed a Mark 8 torpedo and a Mark 18 launcher tube, which the Navy said in a statement were used by the PT 109's class of boats until 1944. "Side-scan sonar images of the site are very conclusive," Dr. Ballard said. They reveal a buried object about 20 feet wide - the PT boat's width - and more than 40 feet long. The length, he said, "easily corresponds to the dimensions of the engine room where the three motors powering the boat were located." Yesterday, Dr. Ballard said his investigation was unable to determine whether the Japanese destroyer had cut PT 109 in two, as some survivors recalled. Circumstantial evidence, he said, suggested that perhaps 90 percent of the boat lay at the discovery site, to be covered and uncovered by shifting sands. "We're not divulging the exact location," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/science/11WREC.html?ex=1027392570&ei=1&en=bf7b9dc8c87bd0c3 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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