PT-109 found, won't be raised

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Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic, says he has found PT-109, the torpedo boat commanded by John F. Kennedy during World War II.Ballard said the wreck is in 1,200 feet of water in the South Pacific, near the Solomon Islands, where the boat went down in 1943 after being hit by a Japanese destroyer.

The Navy said that based on the location and type of weaponry found, the wreck is probably that of the famous vessel.

Ballard said the wreck, which was found in May, will be left where it is.

"We have an understanding with the Kennedy family as well as others who lost loved ones -- there were two people lost from the boat -- that we will not disturb the site and we will not dig it up," he said.

Eventually, the site might become part of Ballard's planned network of underwater museums accessible over the Internet. But he said it would probably be years before that happens, given the technology required.

PT-109 was rammed on Aug. 2, 1943. The destroyer was believed to have struck Kennedy's 80-foot boat amidship, slicing it in two. But Ballard said it appears PT-109 was actually struck a glancing blow that sheared off only a portion of the stern.

The 11 surviving crewmen clung to the slowly sinking bow, then swam to a small island. Kennedy towed an injured crewman to shore by swimming with a strap from the man's lifejacket in his teeth.

The future president was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart. The episode was dramatized in a 1963 movie.