Hunters in the Shallows: A History of the PT Boat

Hunters in the Shallows examines the development of the small torpedo boat in U.S. naval history, from Lt. William Cushing’s heroic Civil War attack on the Confederate ram Albemarle in 1864 in a forerunner of the PT to the type’s zenith in World War II.

Author Curtis L. Nelson takes readers inside the scandalous 1939 Elco deal to manufacture PTs, describes Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s dramatic escape from Corregidor via PT in 1942, and assesses the sinking of John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 off the Solomon Islands in 1943.

Hunter in the Shallows provides a comprehensive critical analysis of a valuable vessel long neglected by naval scholars.