Collision With History: The Search For John F. Kennedy's PT 109 [Hardcover]

Robert D. Ballard (Author), Michael Hamilton Morgan (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 26, 2002

With the support of the Kennedy family, best-selling National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert D. Ballard embarks on the search for PT-109, the boat made famous by commander John F. Kennedy's heroic rescue efforts following a harrowing collision with a Japanese destroyer in WWII. The companion to a major National Geographic Explorer television documentary Forty years after his death and 60 years after his first collision with history four miles off the island of Gizo in the South Pacific, John F. Kennedy and his story still inspires readers. JFK's heroic efforts to save his 11-man PT 109 (personal torpedo boat) crew including - swimming close to 80 miles over a period of six days through Japanese- and shark-infested waters, at one point even towing an injured crewman by a rope in his teeth for a two-mile swim- come to life interwoven through a comprehensive history of PT boats and the World War II campaign in the Solomon Islands. Collision with History combines first person presence on Ballard's search expedition for the wreckage, survivor accounts, and Kennedy family members' recollections to introduce the reader to the young war hero who would later become president. Covering subjects such as modern exploration, World War II, and personal heroism, Ballard weaves a tale that spans 60 years.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

On a foggy August night in 1943, the future President's PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands. Two of the 13-man crew died in the action, which cut their boat in two. Kennedy acquitted himself well in the aftermath, assisting two injured crewmen, leading the survivors to nearby islands and eventually getting word to rescuers. In the tradition of his explorations of the Titanic and Bismarck wrecks, Ballard (with help from writer/consultant Morgan) attempts to set the strategic and tactical stage for Kennedy's war, but the result is rather disappointing. The text then jumps forward to the May 2002 expedition to locate the wreck. There is some material describing the geography of the Solomons and their modern inhabitants. Chapter 5, which is given over to the actual search and discovery, might have made a detailed magazine article but is scarcely sufficient to form the core of a book. Heavily illustrated with photos and National Geographic reconstructions, and with family remembrances and an introduction by Sen. Edward Kennedy, this coffee-table book feels rushed into print to accompany the promised television documentary. A marginal purchase unless the documentary generates demand.
Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Robert D. Ballard, Ph.D., is president of the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Conn. and the former director of the Center for Marine Exploration at Woods Hole, Mass and the author of several best-selling books, including Explorations, The Discovery of the Titanic, and The Discovery of the Bismarck.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (November 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792268768
• ISBN-13: 978-0792268765
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 0.8 x 10.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent story, December 7, 2002

By 

BillMah "billmah" (Madison, Connecticut USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collision With History: The Search For John F. Kennedy's PT 109 (Hardcover)

Dr. Ballard lives in Lyme Connecticut, 10 miles from where I live. I saw this book in a local bookstore window this weekend, and realized that he was coming to town in 4 days to speak on the subject. Being a history buff, and certainly a Kennedy history buff, I bought the book (locally, so that he would sign it for free!), and read it last night. It's a short read, with only one or two chapters covering the actual exploration for the PT-109. The rest of the book contains Kennedy family history dating back to the Kennedy's in Boston from 1850. There was a nice chapter on the Solomon Islands, the local people, the influence of Western culture, and the culture today. There was also nice information on the crash that proves that the Hollywood movie on PT-109 took some liberties concerning his rescue of marines on a beach ... go figure ... Hollywood taking liberties...

The bottom line ... I believe Ballard has found the PT boat ... even though he couldn't quite prove it ... The fact a future president's boat was lost in this region has left a closeness with the locals towards the United States ... and the two local's that discovered Kennedy and his crew are still alive and still very much influenced by their part in history. This will be Ballard's last modern historical ship find ... after this he will move on to work on the Black Sea project ... I'm glad he found John Kennedy's boat before he moved on. Read the book

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice history, December 2, 2002

By 

BillMah "billmah" (Madison, Connecticut USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collision With History: The Search For John F. Kennedy's PT 109 (Hardcover)

Dr. Ballard lives in Lyme Connecticut, 10 miles from where I live. I saw this book in a local bookstore window this weekend, and realized that he was coming to town in 4 days to speak on the subject. Being a history buff, and certainly a Kennedy history buff, I bought the book (locally, so that he would sign it for free!), and read it last night. It's a short read, with only one or two chapters covering the actual exploration for the PT-109. The rest of the book contains Kennedy family history dating back to the Kennedy's in Boston from 1850. There was a nice chapter on the Solomon Islands, the local people, the influence of Western culture, and the culture today. There was also nice information on the crash that proves that the Hollywood movie on PT-109 took some liberties concerning his rescue of marines on a beach ... go figure ... Hollywood taking liberties...

The bottom line ... I believe Ballard has found the PT boat ... even though he couldn't quite prove it ... The fact a future president's boat was lost in this region has left a closeness with the locals towards the United States ... and the two local's that discovered Kennedy and his crew are still alive and still very much influenced by their part in history. This will be Ballard's last modern historical ship find ... after this he will move on to work on the Black Sea project ... I'm glad he found John Kennedy's boat before he moved on. Read the book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another excellent book and the appropriate way to handle the discovery, May 5, 2011

By 

Jersey Kid (Katy, Texas, America!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collision With History: The Search for John F. Kennedy's PT 109 (Hardcover)

Robert Ballard has made history with his discoveries of sunken ships. At the same time, he has set the standard for how such wrecks should be handled; or, more precisely how they should not be handled.

In this short book, Ballard takes us throught the mission that saw a US patrol torpedo boat split in half by a Japanese destroyer and its crew left - and probabaly hoped to be so by their enemies - dead. That wasn't the case. Most survived and were able to get themselves to an island where help arrived and returned them to their bases. Most of us have read the story and/or seen the movie, so I'm won't discuss what happened. That's becuse it's not what this book is about.

Using techniques that have served him in the past - analysis of extant records; high-tech equipment; dogged dtermination and luck - Ballard and his comrades were able to locate portions of the PT-109. They elected - in view of the fact the wreck most certainly a war grave - not to disturb the site. Doing so, would have been wrong, although it would have provided 100% certainty. The other stunning thing about this story - the first and more important being the touching way the wreck site was recorded for subsequent vieiwng by the Kennedy family - was the discovery itself. The PT-109 was a 60 foot plywood vessel that had been bisected in the collision. This meant that instead of several hundred feet of steel reacting to sonar and magnetic serach equipment, the Ballard team were looking/hoping to get hits off far, far smaller objects. In the end, it was a torpedo tube - an item that was, perhaps, 15 feet long and two feet wide - that gave back a signal.

One fine story and the vessel, the crew and the decency of those who found the site.