Tales of the South Pacific

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Tales of the South Pacific is a Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories written by James A. Michener in 1946 based upon his observations while stationed as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy on the island of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides islands (now known as Vanuatu). The skipper of PT-105 met Michener while stationed at a PT boat base in the Solomon Islands.

The stories about World War II in and surrounding the Pacific Islands Coral Sea are interconnected by recurring characters and several loose plot lines (the Solomon Islands campaign and a fictitious amphibious invasion) but focus on interactions between Americans and a variety of colonial, immigrant and native characters. The musical play South Pacific (which opened on Broadway on April 7, 1949), by Rodgers and Hammerstein, was based on these stories. While the coastwatcher in the musical was cast as an American, these were actually a network of Australians and native scouts, some of whom helped save the crew of John F. Kennedy's PT-109. It was produced as a feature film in 1958. South Pacific was also followed by a series of movies and TV shows about sailors in the Pacific who were stranded on islands like John F. Kennedy's PT-109, including the pilot and TV series McHale's Navy, the movie PT-109, and Gilligan's Island.