*** Welcome to piglix ***

USS Charger (AVG-30)

USS Charger CVE-30
History
Name:
  • USS Charger (1941–47)
  • Fairsea (1947–69)
Ordered: C3-P&C
Builder: Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania
Laid down: 19 January 1940
Launched: 1 March 1941
Acquired: 4 October 1941
Commissioned: 3 March 1942
Decommissioned: 15 March 1946
Reclassified:
  • AVG-30, 24 January 1942
  • ACV-30, 20 August 1942
  • CVE-30, 15 July 1943
Fate:
  • Sold into merchant service, 30 January 1947
  • Sold for scrap, 1969
General characteristics
Class and type: Charger-class escort carrier
Displacement: 8,000 long tons (8,128 t)
Length: 492 ft (150 m)
Beam:
  • 69 ft 6 in (21.18 m)
  • 111 ft 2 in (33.88 m) extreme width
Draft: 26 ft 3 in (8.00 m)
Speed: 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Complement: 856 officers and enlisted
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 30+

USS Charger (CVE-30) (originally AVG-4, then AVG-30, then later ACV-30) was an escort carrier of the United States Navy during World War II.

Planned as the third of four C-P-3 cargo/passenger liners of the C3 design for the Moore-McCormack company, the ship was launched on 1 March 1941 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania; named Rio de la Plata, it was sponsored by Mrs. Felipe A. Espil (Courtney Letts de Espil). On 20 May 1941, the United States Maritime Commission requisitioned all four unfinished combiliners, for conversion to military use.

The vessel was prepared for naval duties by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia. Intended for transfer to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease, the former Rio de la Plata was commissioned on 2 October 1941 as HMS Charger (D27), Captain George Abel-Smith RN in command. However, the transfer was rescinded and the ship returned to United States control on 4 October 1941. The vessel was reclassified AVG-30 on 24 January 1942 and commissioned as USS Charger on 3 March 1942, Captain T. L. Sprague USN in command; and reported to the Atlantic Fleet.

Listed by the United States Navy as the sole ship of the "Charger Type of 1942 (Class)", she actually had several sister ships in HMS Avenger, Biter, and Dasher, all with similar building histories and transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease.


...
Wikipedia

...