Motor Torpedo Boat PT - 59 Motor Torpedo Boat " PT - 59 was a of the United States Navy , built by the Electric Launch Company of Bayonne , New Jersey . The boat was laid down as Motor Boat Submarine Chaser " PTC - 21 , and was reclassified as BPT - 11 when assigned to transfer to Britain under Lend - Lease . However , this was cancelled , and she was reclassified as " PT - 59 " prior to launch on 8 July 1941 , and was completed on 23 July 1941 . She is noted for being the second command of then - Lieutenant , junior grade ( LTJG ) John F . Kennedy ( who later became President of the United States ) in the Pacific Theater during World War II . Service history . 1941 to 1943 . " PT - 59 " was first assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Four , the training squadron based at Melville , Rhode Island . On 9 April 1942 it accidentally fired a torpedo which hit the supply ship , causing eight injuries , but no deaths . It was transferred to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Two on 7 May 1942 . At the end of May 1942 , Ensign David M . Levy took over " PT - 59 " and the Squadron was sent to Panama . They were to guard the canal and the Central and South American coast on anti - submarine duty . In October 1942 " PT - 59 " departed for the $ 3 on board the Liberty ship SS " Roger Williams " . In November 1942 " PT - 59 " arrived at the Solomons with MTB Squadron 2 , numbering 8 boats . The Squadron was based at Sesapi on Tulagi Island . On the night of December 9 , Lt . ( jg . ) John M . Searles USNR , in the 59 , patrolling with PT 44 at Kamimbo Bay , sighted an enemy barge . As the PT ' s opened fire on the barge , Searles saw a surfaced submarine . He quickly fired two torpedoes , one of which hit amidships . A geyser of water spouted high in the air , followed by tremendous explosions and a huge oil slick that spread for an hour and a half . It has been confirmed that Searles sank the submarine I - 3 , a vessel 320 feet long , of 1 , 955 tons standard surface displacement . In March 1943 " PT - 59 " was moved forward to the Russell Islands . In the fall of 1943 David M . Levy returned to the United States and was succeeded by LTJG John F . " Jack " Kennedy as commanding officer of " PT - 59 " . Under Kennedy ' s command . In October 1943 , Kennedy took command of " PT - 59 " . Kennedy was given command when he chose to stay and fight in the Pacific Theater ( PTO ) after his first command , the was rammed and sunk by the on the night of 2 August 1943 . Before Kennedy received command , " PT - 59 " had her torpedo tubes removed and was converted into a gunboat . It was given two 40 - millimeter anti - aircraft guns , and additional . 30 and . 50 - caliber machine guns behind shields . Kennedy set up some of the shields for live fire tests and it was found they could be breached at short range with . 30 and . 50 - caliber machine guns at a frontal angle . On November 2 , 1943 , in an incident which was portrayed as an action by " PT - 109 " in the film " PT - 109 " , " PT - 59 " helped evacuate 40 to 50 Marines ( including several dozen wounded men ) from the 2nd Parachute Battalion of the 1st Marine Parachute Regiment who had been trapped during a raid on Choiseul Island . After the rescue , " PT - 59 " ran out of gas on the return trip and had to be towed by " PT - 236 " . One badly wounded Marine died in Kennedy ' s bunk aboard " PT - 59 " that night . After Kennedy ' s command . " PT - 59 " remained in the Solomons until August 1944 , when she and five other 77 - ft Elco PT Boats were transported back to the Motor Torpedo Boat Training Base at Melville , Rhode Island . It is safe to assume repairs were performed on the boat by the MTB Base Repair Training Unit . " PT - 59 " was redesignated as a " Small Boat " and renumbered C102583 on 14 October 1944 , and along with ex - " PT - 47 " used briefly as an crash rescue boat at NAS Norfolk , before being transferred to the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 15 December 1944 to serve as a test subject for dehydration tests . Surveyed on 21 March 1947 , she was then stricken and sold . Fate . In a cruel twist of fate " PT - 59 " quietly ended her days in the 1970s after having served ( possibly since 1947 ) as a fishing boat in Manhattan . It had been thought this boat was formerly " PT - 95 " , a 78 - foot Huckins PT Boat , a very different ( training only ) design with no significant wartime history , and hence no immediate efforts were made to save the vessel . When the actual identity of this boat was discovered , James " Boat " Newberry , founder of PT Boats Inc . , attempted to obtain the boat ; however , the boat ' s ownership was tangled up in NYC probate court . Somehow a fire occurred , and the boat eventually sunk at its mooring , beside the 207th St . Bridge over the Harlem River , around 1976 . The hull sat there for years and slowly fell apart and rotted away . Thus , an important historical artifact was lost due to a typing error . What was left was eventually removed and she has since been declared destroyed by the U . S . Coast Guard , Coast Guard Sector New York .