PT boat

PT-105 at high speed.

PT Boats were motor torpedo boats ("PT", for "Patrol Torpedo"). They were small, fast ships used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships. The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet". They were exceedingly nimble, relatively expendable to the larger fleet, and carried torpedoes that featured a remarkable destruction-to weight ratio. John F. Kennedy famously served on one of these. His boat was run over and sliced in two by an enemy destroyer. Navies often used destroyers to combat these cheap but dangerous surface craft.

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PT Boat Media

Second place PT-31 crossing the finish line during the "Plywood Derby".
Elco and Higgins PT boats, as published in a 1945 training manual
Huckins 78-foot (24 m) PT-259 underway near Midway c.1944
USS PT-167 is holed by an enemy torpedo that failed to detonate, 5 November 1943. Painting by Gerard Richardson
USS Hornet with PT-28 and PT-29
PT boat gunner mans a twin .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun off New Guinea
An 80-foot (24 m) Elco PT boat with original Mark 18 torpedo tubes on patrol off the coast of New Guinea, 1943
PT-109 crew.jpg

Lieutenant (junior grade) John Kennedy (right) with his PT-109 crew