USS Wright (AZ-1)
USS Wright (AZ-1) at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, April 1927
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | Wright |
| Namesake: | Orville Wright |
| Builder: | American International Shipbuilding Corporation, Hog Island, Pennsylvania |
| Yard number: | 680 |
| Laid down: | 5 February 1919 as Skaneateles |
| Launched: | 28 April 1920 |
| Completed: | 16 December 1921 |
| Commissioned: | 16 December 1921, as AZ-1 |
| Decommissioned: | 21 June 1946 |
| Renamed: | San Clemente (AG-79), 1 February 1945 |
| Reclassified: |
|
| Struck: | 1 July 1946 |
| Honours and awards: |
2 battle stars (World War II) |
| Fate: |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Seaplane tender |
| Displacement: | 11,500 long tons (11,685 t) full load |
| Length: | 448 ft (137 m) |
| Beam: | 58 ft (18 m) |
| Draft: | 23 ft (7.0 m) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 15.3 knots (28.3 km/h; 17.6 mph) |
| Complement: | 228 officers and men |
| Armament: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | F5L and Curtiss NC-10 seaplanes |
USS Wright (AZ-1/AV-1) was a one-of-a-kind auxiliary ship in the United States Navy, named for aviation pioneer Orville Wright.
Originally the unnamed "hull no. 680", the ship was laid down at Hog Island, Pennsylvania by the American International Shipbuilding Corporation under a United States Shipping Board contract. Named Wright on 20 April 1920, the ship was launched on 28 April. A little over two months later, the Navy signed a contract with the Tietjen and Lang Dry Dock Company of Hoboken, New Jersey to convert the ship to a unique type of auxiliary vessel, a "lighter-than-air aircraft tender." On 17 July 1920, the ship received that classification and was designated AZ-1. Wright was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 16 December 1921. Her first commanding officer was Captain (later Admiral) Alfred W. Johnson, who also discharged the collateral duties of Commander, Air Squadrons, Atlantic Fleet. Johnson was the first of a long line of commanding officers for the ship, some of whom later distinguished themselves; men such as John Rodgers, Ernest J. King, Aubrey W. Fitch, Patrick N. L. Bellinger, and Marc A. Mitscher.
From the New York Navy Yard, Wright sailed for the Philadelphia Navy Yard and reached there on 22 February 1922. After installation of her armament, the lighter-than-air aircraft tender departed Philadelphia on 2 March, touching at Hampton Roads, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina en route to the Florida coast. Arriving at Key West on 11 March, Wright reported for special duty with the first division of Scouting Squadron 1 – a unit that included the seaplane NC-10 piloted by Lieutenant Clifton A. F. Sprague and a half-dozen F5L seaplanes. Three days later, the tender put to sea for operations with Scouting Division 1 out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There, she was later joined by the six planes of Division 2 and two planes of Division 3.
...
Wikipedia