USS Yorktown (CV-5)

USS Yorktown in July 1937
History
United States
Name:	USS Yorktown
Namesake:	The Battle of Yorktown
Ordered:	3 August 1933
Builder:	Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.
Laid down:	21 May 1934
Launched:	4 April 1936
Sponsored by:	Eleanor Roosevelt
Commissioned:	30 September 1937
In service:	1937
Out of service:	1942
Struck:	2 October 1942
Identification:	CV-5
Honors and awards:	3 battle stars American Defense Service Medal ("A" device)/American Campaign Medal / Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (3 stars) / World War II Victory Medal
Fate:	Sunk 7 June 1942 in the Battle of Midway, 141 men killed.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Yorktown-class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	As built: 19,800 long tons (20,100 t) light 25,500 long tons (25,900 t) full load
Length:	As built: 770 ft (230 m) (waterline @ design draft) 824 ft 9 in (251.38 m) overall
Beam:	As built: 83 ft 3 in (25.37 m) (waterline) 109 ft 6 in (33.38 m) (overall)
Draft:	25 ft 11.5 in (7.912 m) (as built)
Propulsion:	9 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 4 × Parsons geared turbines, 120,000 shp (89 MW) 4 × screws
Speed:	32.5 knots (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h)
Range:	12,500 nautical miles (23,200 km; 14,400 mi) at 15 knots (17 mph; 28 km/h)
Complement:	2,217 officers and men (1941)
Sensors and processing systems:	CXAM radar from 1940
Armament:	As built: 8 × single 5 in/38 cal guns 4 × quad 1.1 in/75 cal guns 24 × .50 caliber machine guns From February 1942: 8 × 5 in/38 cal 4 × Quad 1.1 in/75 cal 24 20mm Oerlikon guns 24 × .50 caliber machine guns
Armor:	As built: 2.5-4 inch belt 60 lb protective decks 4 inch bulkheads 4 inch side and 3 inch top round conning tower 4 inch side over steering gear
Aircraft carried:	As built: 90 aircraft 3 × elevators 2 × flight deck hydraulic catapults 1 × hangar deck hydraulic catapults

USS Yorktown (CV-5) was an aircraft carrier commissioned in the United States Navy from 1937 until she was sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. She was named after the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 and the lead ship of the Yorktown class which was designed after lessons learned from operations with the large converted battlecruiser Lexington class and the smaller purpose-built USS Ranger. She represented the epitome of U.S. pre-war carrier design.

Yorktown was laid down on 21 May 1934 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.; launched on 4 April 1936; sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt; and commissioned at the Naval Station Norfolk (NS Norfolk), Norfolk, Virginia, on 30 September 1937, Captain Ernest D. McWhorter in command.

After fitting out, the aircraft carrier trained in Hampton Roads, Virginia and in the southern drill grounds off the Virginia capes into January 1938, conducting carrier qualifications for her newly embarked air group.

Yorktown sailed for the Caribbean on 8 January 1938 and arrived at Culebra, Puerto Rico, on 13 January. Over the ensuing month, the carrier conducted her shakedown, touching at Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; Gonaïves, Haiti; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Cristóbal, Panama Canal Zone. Departing Colon Bay, Cristobal, on 1 March, Yorktown sailed for Hampton Roads, arrived on 6 March, and put into the Norfolk Navy Yard the next day for post-shakedown availability.