PBM-5 Mariner

"The Martin PBM Mariner was a United States Navy patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to compliment the PBY Catalina in service. 1,285 PBM Mariner were built, with the first example flying on February 18, 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940. The U.S. Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner patrol bomber Bureau of Aeronautics (Bureau Number 59172) was one of the 1,367 PBM Mariners constructed by Navy Martin. It was delivered to the Navy in January 1945. During the World War II and Cold War eras, the PBM-5 Mariner was in service with various Navy units in a number of capacities. Its last operational assignment was Naval Air station, Seattle, Washington in late 1948. The PBM-5 Mariner was wrecked on May 6, 1949 while being ferried across Lake Washington from Naval Air Station, Seattle to the Boeing seaplane ramp at Renton, Washington, where it was intended to be placed in storage. As of today, the wreck of PBM-5 Mariner remains where the aircraft came to rest in 1949, in the Southernmost end of Lake Washington, in the vicinity of Renton, just off the old seaplane ramp at the Boeing plant. The PBM-5a is an amphibian plane with retractable landing gear. The aircraft was fitted with five gun turrets and bomb bays that were in the engine nacelles. The British Royal Airforce acquired 32 Mariners. They were not used operationally and some were returned to the United States Navy and twelve were transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force for transporting troops and cargo. The Dutch Navy acquired seventeen PBM-5a Mariners at the end of 1955 for service in former Dutch New Guinea. "