Wasp-class aircraft carrier

USS Wasp entering Hampton Roads
Class overview
Name:	Wasp class
Operators:	United States Navy
Preceded by:	Yorktown class
Succeeded by:	Essex class
Built:	1936–40
In commission:	1940–42
Planned:	1
Completed:	1
Lost:	1
History
United States
Name:	Wasp
Namesake:	USS Wasp (1814)
Ordered:	19 September 1935
Builder:	Fore River Shipyard
Laid down:	1 April 1936
Launched:	4 April 1939
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Charles Edison
Commissioned:	25 April 1940 (first Commanding Officer: Captain John W. Reeves, Jr.)
Struck:	15 September 1942
Honors and awards:	American Defense Service Medal ("A" device) / American Campaign Medal/European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (1 star) / Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1 star) / World War II Victory Medal
Fate:	Sunk by IJN I-19, 15 September 1942
General characteristics
Type:	Aircraft carrier
Displacement:	As built: 14,700 long tons (14,900 t) (standard) 19,116 long tons (19,423 t) (full load)
Length:	688 ft (210 m) (waterline) 741 ft 3 in (225.93 m) (overall)
Beam:	80 ft 9 in (24.61 m) (waterline) 109 ft (33 m) (overall)
Draft:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Installed power:	70,000 shp (52,000 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × Parsons steam turbines 6 × boilers at 565 psi 2 × shafts
Speed:	29.5 kn (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph)
Range:	12,000 nmi (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	1,800 officers and men (peacetime) 2,167 (wartime)
Sensors and processing systems:	CXAM-1 radar
Armament:	As built: 8 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal guns 16 × 1.1 in (28 mm)/75 cal anti-aircraft guns 24 × .50 in (13 mm) machine guns
Armor:	As built: 60 lb (27 kg) STS conning tower 3.5 in side and 22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)50 lb deck over steering gear
Aircraft carried:	As built: Up to 100
Aviation facilities:	3 × elevators 4 × hydraulic catapults (2 flight deck, 2 hangar deck)

USS Wasp (CV-7) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier commissioned in 1940 and lost in action in 1942. She was the eighth ship named USS Wasp, and the sole ship of a class built to use up the remaining tonnage allowed to the U.S. for aircraft carriers under the treaties of the time. As a reduced-size version of the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier hull, Wasp was more vulnerable than other United States aircraft carriers available at the opening of hostilities. Wasp was initially employed in the Atlantic campaign, where Axis naval forces were perceived as less capable of inflicting decisive damage. After supporting the occupation of Iceland in 1941, Wasp joined the British Home Fleet in April 1942 and twice ferried British fighter aircraft to Malta. Wasp was then transferred to the Pacific in June 1942 to replace losses at the battles of Coral Sea and Midway. After supporting the invasion of Guadalcanal, Wasp was sunk by the Japanese submarine I-19 on 15 September 1942.

Wasp was a product of the Washington Naval Treaty. After the construction of the carriers Yorktown and Enterprise, the U.S. was still permitted 15,000 long tons (15,000 t) to build a carrier.

The Navy sought to squeeze a large air group onto a ship with nearly 25% less displacement than the Yorktown-class. In order to save weight and space, Wasp was constructed with low-power machinery (compare Wasp's 75,000 shp (56,000 kW) machinery with Yorktown's 120,000 shp (89,000 kW), Essex-class's 150,000 shp (110,000 kW), and the Independence-class's 100,000 shp (75,000 kW)).

...
Wikipedia