PT 109: An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy

by William Doyle

John F. Kennedy loved the sea as “a child, boy, and man,” observed his widow Jacqueline. “I have been interested in the sea from my earliest boyhood,” Kennedy himself once wrote. “My earliest recollections of the United States Navy go back to the days when as a small boy, I used to be taken to the USS Constitution in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The sight of that historic frigate, with its tall spars and black guns, stirred my imagination and made American history come alive for me.” Growing up as one of nine children of the fabulously wealthy financier Joseph P. Kennedy, young “Jack” Kennedy learned to pilot small sailboats with the help of a family sailing instructor at their oceanside vacation estate in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and later at their winter mansion in semitropical Palm Beach, Florida. In his teens, Kennedy became a keen swimmer and a highly skilled, competitive sailboat racer. He preferred to command a boat rather than serve in the crew, and he took racing very seriously, firmly chastising crew members who didn’t measure up.