21. Several different versions of how PT 109 was lost arose in the 1960s
The Navy found Lieutenant John F. Kennedy was not culpable in the loss of his command, and the lives of two of his men. Inevitably, given his chosen profession after the war, conflicting opinions over how the boat was lost surfaced. None of the officers and crew who were present when the boat was struck by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri ever blamed the loss on Kennedy. Once the destroyer was seen looming in the darkness, Kennedy, idling on one engine, may or may not have immediately throttled up. But his act of throttling up had no immediate connection to the engines. That was provided by the motor machinist, who actually opened the muffler flaps and the engine’s throttles.
The motor machinist on duty at the time was Patrick McMahon, who was severely burned in the ensuing explosion. If he moved to open the flaps and the throttles he never said so. One writer commented that Kennedy said he throttled up without opening the flaps. Perhaps he did, but Kennedy throttling up was a signal to the engine room, which had to respond. Kennedy had no control of the muffler flaps, their proper positioning was part of engine room protocol. After the war the Japanese commander of the Amagiri claimed that he spotted the PT boat and steered directly toward it at high speed, over 35 knots, intent on destroying it by ramming.
