Salvage crews have begun to lift the wreckage of a torpedo boat thought to have been commanded heroically by John F Kennedy in WWII from New York City’s Harlem River.
JFK’s valiant record, rescuing several of his PT 109 crew members in August 1942 after being rammed by a Japanese warship, memorialized him as a war hero and helped boost his credentials on his way to the White House.
But aboard the lesser-known PT 59 in November 1943, on his third command as Lieutenant, Kennedy rescued 10 Marines from a troop of Japanese infantrymen hunting down American soldiers on the Solomon Islands, east of Papua New Guinea.
Despite whispers of the Harlem River being the PT 59’s last resting place, only last month when city officials on a flood-protection project began lifting hardwood planks from near the 207th Street train yard, did the rumors seem real.
A crane is pictured near Inwood’s North Cove on Thursday in New York as excavation began
A crane began to retrieve pieces of what is believed to be the PT-59, a Navy vessel commanded by John F. Kennedy in his mid-20s during World War II
Kennedy aboard the PT-109 in the South Pacific during World War II in 1943
View of motor torpedo boat PT 59 during its World War II service in the Solomon Islands, early to mid 1940s
‘This is history,’ said Harlem local, Bob Walters, 73, who told the Chicago Tribune that he spent much of his childhood on the river.
In 2017, Kennedy biographer William Doyle, said the PT 59 ended up in a training center in Rhode Island and then the Philadelphia Navy Yard in the years after the war.
Following the paper trail, Doyle discovered that after its service the vessel was sold on to a weekend fisherman who used it as a party boat, the New York Post reported.
Damaged in a fire, the ship was transformed into a houseboat during the 1970s and docked on the Harlem River at 208th in Inwood.
Though Doyle knew the last owner sank the boat after it became a hazard, the full story of the ship’s twilight years has now been revealed by the last man to pilot the scrap of presidential history.
Redmond Burke, 80, a retired schoolteacher, told the Tribune that he bought the 59 for $1,000 while working at Bronx Community College in 1970.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), is building a $610 million sea wall along the river to prevent flooding in the 207th Street train yard
In the mid-1970s, the new owner let the boat, which he said had become a hazard, sink to the bottom of the river. The river is pictured on Thursday
By then, the boat would have seemed alien to Kennedy – its war-ready engines stripped out for more economical replacements and its turrets replaced with fishing rod holders.
Burke said that he was unaware of the boat’s history until one of his students, who’d been researching Kennedy’s war record, told him, ‘You’re living on a famous boat’.
In the mid-1970s, he let the boat, which he said had become a hazard, sink to the bottom of the river.
He had previously tried to sell it off to Kennedy interest groups but had no success.
‘I had hoped it might have a more dignified end,’ he said, ‘but it was not to be.’
On Thursday, DailyMail.com captured images of the wreckage being pulled from the water.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), is building a $610 million sea wall along the river to prevent flooding in the 207th Street train yard. It was flooded during Hurricane Sandy on 2012.
An MTA spokesperson has said the scene where the boat sank is not considered a historical site however the agency will ‘continue to work with the experts to ensure appropriate preservation where possible’.
Spokesperson Meredith Daniels added to the New York Times that the remnants could end up in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston and the Battleship Cove maritime museum in Fall River, Massachusetts.
Front view, a 40 mm Bofors, and twin .50 BrowningsPT-59 US Navy patrol boat once commanded by John F Kennedy during WWII. Commanding the 59, Kennedy (not pictured) rescued 10 Marines from a troop of Japanese infantrymen hunting down American soldiers on the Solomon Islands, east of Papua New Guinea
40mm gun PT-59 US Navy patrol boat once commanded by John F Kennedy during WWII
Black and White photo of John F. Kennedy’s old command PT-59 abandoned in the Harlem River in New York, rapidly decaying away, soon to sink. The boat had been converted to a fishing vessel. PT-59 US Navy patrol boat once commanded by John F Kennedy during WWII
PT-59’s cramped engine room. PT-59 US Navy patrol boat once commanded by John F Kennedy during WWII