There's an interesting anecdote about the PBY that is probably an urban, or in this case a rural, legend. Chuck could probably either confirm or discount it, since it was supposed to have happened in his neck of the woods.
Back when Queen Charlotte Airlines and Canadian Pacific Airlines operated the PBY, one or the other - I forget which - used to run a sched with it from Vancouver to Prince Rupert BC. At that time there was no road into Prince Rupert, so everything came in either by air or by boat. One day, the company running the scheduled service got a call to rush a crankshaft for a Caterpillar D8 tractor to Prince Rupert. The only way they could fit the thing into the aircraft and maintain the c of g in limits, was to stow the crankshaft vertically in the tower compartment. On the approach to the harbour in Prince Rupert, they encountered some pretty wild turbulence. The crank broke lose and exited the aircraft via the hole it pounded in the hull. It is not known if it dropped into the Caterpillar dealer's garage park.
