USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90)

History
USS Thetis Bay (LPH-6), circa 1963
United States
Name:	Thetis Bay
Builder:	Kaiser Shipyards
Laid down:	22 December 1943
Launched:	16 March 1944
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Ricco Botta
Commissioned:	12 April 1944
Decommissioned:	1 March 1964
Reclassified:	1 July 1955
Struck:	1 March 1964
Honors and awards:	1 Battle star
Fate:	Sold for scrapping December 1964
General characteristics
Class and type:	Casablanca-class escort carrier
Displacement:	7,800 tons (light) 10,400 tons (full load)
Length:	512 ft 3 in (156.13 m) overall
Beam:	65 ft 2 in (19.86 m) 108 ft 1 in (32.94 m) maximum width
Draft:	22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)
Propulsion:	2 × 5-cylinder reciprocating Skinner Unaflow engines 4 × 285 psi boilers 2 shafts, 9,000 shp
Speed:	19 knots (35 km/h)
Range:	10,240 nmi (18,960 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h)
Complement:	860 officers and men Embarked Squadron: 50 to 56 officers and men Total: 910 to 916 officers and men.
Armament:	1 × 5-inch/38 cal. DP gun 16 × 40 mm AA cannon in 8 twin mounts 20 × 20 mm AA machine guns in single mounts
Aircraft carried:	28

USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90/CVHA-1/LPH-6) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy. Though not the last of the class to be built, she was the last Casablanca class hull to be scrapped.

Thetis Bay was laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1127) on 22 December 1943 at Vancouver, Washington, by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company; launched on 16 March 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Ricco Botta; and commissioned on 21 April 1944, Captain Donald E. Wilcox in command.

The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships says Thetis Bay is "an inlet at the south end of Tebenkof Bay on the west coast of Kuiu Island in the Alexander Archipelago of Alaska."

Thetis Bay got underway for San Diego where she conducted brief shakedown training. On 2 June, she moved to San Pedro to load planes and passengers for Pacific bases. The new escort carrier put out to sea on 5 June; called at Pearl Harbor on the 11th; and continued on, via Makin and Majuro, to Kwajalein. There, she embarked the Army's 50th Engineer Battalion which she offloaded at Pearl Harbor on 5 July.

Two days later, the carrier got underway for Alameda with 41 aircraft that needed repairs. She arrived on 13 July and, after offloading the aircraft, proceeded to Terminal Island for a three-week yard period. Between 11 August and 13 September, the escort carrier delivered spare parts, replacement aircraft, and personnel to Hawaii and the Marshalls. From September 1944 through mid-April 1945, Thetis Bay made five round-trip voyages from California ports to bases in the Pacific ranging from Pearl Harbor to Finschhaven, New Guinea.

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Wikipedia