USS Kitty Hawk (AKV-1)
.jpg) |
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Name: | USS Kitty Hawk |
| Namesake: | Kitty Hawk, North Carolina |
| Builder: | Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania |
| Laid down: | 1932, as SS Seatrain New York |
| Acquired: | 25 June 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 26 November 1941 as APV-1 (Transport and Aircraft Ferry) |
| Decommissioned: | 24 January 1946 |
| Renamed: | Kitty Hawk, 8 July 1941 |
| Reclassified: | AKV-1 (Aircraft Transport), 15 September 1943 |
| Struck: | 24 January 1946 |
| Fate: | Returned to owner, 24 January 1946 |
| Status: | Scrapped 1973 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Aircraft transport |
| Displacement: | 16,480 long tons (16,740 t) full load |
| Length: | 478 ft (146 m) |
| Beam: | 63 ft 6 in (19.35 m) |
| Draft: | 26 ft 4 in (8.03 m) |
| Installed power: | 8,800 shp (6,600 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 17 kn (20 mph; 31 km/h) |
| Complement: | 245 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 1 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal gun, 4 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal guns, 4 × 40 mm guns (2x2), 24 × 20 mm AA cannons (8x2, 16x1) |
| Aircraft carried: | Ferried a variety of aircraft, mainly fighter types |
USS Kitty Hawk (APV-1/AKV-1), formerly SS Seatrain New York, was built in 1932 by Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Corporation of Chester, Pennsylvania for Seatrain Lines, Inc.
She was acquired by the United States Navy on 25 June 1941; and renamed Kitty Hawk on 8 July. She was named after Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where the Wright brothers made the world's first powered heavier than air flight on 17 December 1903. She was converted to an aircraft transport by Tietjin & Land Dry Dock Corporation, Hoboken, New Jersey and commissioned on 26 November 1941, at New York Navy Yard, with Commander E. C. Rogers in command.
After shakedown, Kitty Hawk departed New York on 16 December 1941, for Hawaii via the Panama Canal with aircraft to replace U.S. losses in the Japanese attack, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 February 1942. She unloaded her aircraft at Hickam Field and returned to the mainland on 25 February. Kitty Hawk returned to Pearl Harbor on 17 May. Intelligence reports arrived indicating that a Japanese fleet was approaching the Hawaiian Islands. Immediately, Kitty Hawk loaded the men, armament, and equipment of the 3rd Marine Defense Battalion and aircraft of Marine Air Groups 21 and 45 and sailed at top speed to reinforce Midway, escorted by the destroyer Gwin. En route, a PBY Catalina reported a submarine in the area which Gwin drove off with a heavy barrage of depth charges, enabling Kitty Hawk to deliver her vital fighting men and aircraft to Midway on 26 May.
...
Wikipedia