Crescent City class attack transport
USS Monrovia (APA-31), a ship of the Crescent City class
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Crescent City-class |
| Builders: | Bethlehem Steel |
| Operators: | United States Navy |
| Preceded by: | Harry Lee class |
| Succeeded by: | President Jackson class |
| In commission: |
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| Completed: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Crescent City-class attack transport |
| Displacement: | 7,300 tons (lt), 13,910 t. (fl) |
| Length: | 459 ft 3 in (139.98 m) |
| Beam: | 63 ft (19 m) |
| Draft: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1 × General Electric geared drive turbine, 2 × Foster-Wheeler D-type boilers, 1 × propeller, designed shaft horsepower 6,000 |
| Speed: | 16 - 16.5 knots |
| Capacity: |
Troops: Officer 83-91 Enlisted 1,465-1475 Cargo: 150,000 cu ft, 2,700 tons |
| Complement: | 42-46 officers, 478 enlisted |
| Armament: | 2 × 5"/38 caliber dual-purpose gun mounts, 2 × Bofors 40 mm gun mounts, 4 × twin 20mm gun, 12 - 18 × 20 mm single gun mounts. |
| Notes: | MCV hull type C2-S-B1 |
Troops: Officer 83-91 Enlisted 1,465-1475
The Crescent City-class attack transport was a class of U.S. Navy attack transports that saw service in World War II and the Korean War. There were four ships in the class: Crescent City, Charles Carroll, Monrovia, and Calvert.
Like all attack transports, the purpose of the Crescent City ships was to transport troops and their equipment to foreign shores in order to execute amphibious invasions using an array of smaller assault boats integral to the attack transport itself. Also like all the attack transports, the class was armed with antiaircraft weaponry to protect itself and its cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone.
The Crescent City class began as a class of Navy transport ships (classification AP). Like many other transports, they were redesignated attack transports (APA) on 1 February 1943, the date on which the Navy formalized its separate classification of transport vessels into ordinary transports and attack transports. Unlike many other classes of attack transport, there was no consistent naming convention for these vessels, with individual ships being named after cities, national heroes, or counties of the United States.
The four ships of the Crescent City class were based on the Maritime Commission's ubiquitous Type C3 merchant/auxiliary hull (specifically, the C3-P or C3-Delta types). These were pre-war merchant ship hull types which had been specifically designed with prospective Naval auxiliary service in mind.
All four ships were laid down by Bethlehem Steel at their Sparrow's Point shipyard, but the lead ship, the eponymous Crescent City was launched almost two years before the others, in February 1940. The remaining three were launched between March and September 1942. The commissioning dates were not so far apart though, since Crescent City had to undergo several months converting to an attack transport before she was ready to serve in October '41. The rest were commissioned from August to December '42. The build time for these ships, from laying down to commission, appears to have been about nine months - relatively fast for the C3 type.
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