USS Long Island (CVE-1)
_underway_on_10_June_1944.jpg)
USS Long Island
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | USS Long Island |
| Laid down: | 7 July 1939 |
| Launched: | 11 January 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 2 June 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 26 March 1946 |
| Struck: | 12 April 1946 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in Belgium in 1977 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Long Island-class escort carrier |
| Displacement: | 13,499 long tons (13,716 t) |
| Length: | 492 ft (150 m) |
| Beam: | 69 ft 6 in (21.18 m) |
| Draft: | 25 ft 8 in (7.82 m) |
| Installed power: | 8,500 hp (6,300 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 16.5 kn (19.0 mph; 30.6 km/h) |
| Complement: | 970 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | |
| Aircraft carried: | 21 |
USS Long Island (CVE-1) (originally AVG-1 and then ACV-1) was lead ship of her class and the first escort carrier of the United States Navy. She was also the second ship to be named after Long Island, New York.
She was laid down on 7 July 1939, as the C-3 cargo liner Mormacmail, under Maritime Commission contract, by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania as Yard No 185, launched on 11 January 1940, sponsored by Ms. Dian B. Holt, acquired by the Navy on 6 March 1941, and commissioned on 2 June 1941 as Long Island (AVG-1), Commander Donald B. Duncan in command.
In the tense months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Long Island operated out of Norfolk, Virginia, conducting experiments to prove the feasibility of aircraft operations from converted cargo ships. The data gathered by her crew greatly improved the combat readiness of later "baby flattops". Just after the Japanese attack, she escorted a convoy to Newfoundland and qualified carrier pilots at Norfolk before departing for the West Coast on 10 May 1942. Reaching San Francisco on 5 June, the ship immediately joined Admiral William S. Pye's four battleships and provided air cover while at sea to reinforce Admiral Chester Nimitz's forces after their victory in the Battle of Midway. She left the formation on 17 June and returned to the West Coast to resume carrier pilot training.
...
Wikipedia