“GAINT KILLERS” - The Story of the Elco PT Boats

This video takes viewers through the manufacturing process of typical Elco 80-foot Motor Torpedo Boats. Elco had previously designed and built 70 and 77-foot boats based predominately on the British design of Hubert Scott-Payne’s (British Power Boat Company) PV70. With a limited production of the earlier boats, and because of Navy requirements, Elco used a design of their own for their Elco 80-foot motor torpedo boats. This boat would become the most produced boat throughout the war, with the Higgins 78-foot boat close behind.

Personally, I would not categorize this as a documentary, instead, this video is an Elco promotional film. The production of this film was photographed and directed by Wallace Van Nostrand and supervised by Thomas A. Kelly, The video was compiled and edited by The Princeton Film Center and narrated by Van Deventer.

At the time, Elco was a naval division of the much larger Electric Boat Company of Bayonne, New Jersey. Elco was/is known as a manufacturer of pleasure boats prior to and after World War II.

This is the same boat type as PT 109 (PT-109) that was lost while John F. Kennedy served as Skipper.