USS Long Island (CVE-1)
_underway_on_10_June_1944.jpg) |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||
The USS Long Island was the first American escort aircraft carrier and later served as a passenger, training and accommodation ship.
history
Construction as a cargo ship
The ship was originally commissioned by Moore-McCormack Lines as a cargo ship and was christened Mormacmail by Diane B. Holt, the daughter of the shipping company's vice president . The Mormacmail belonged to the C3-S-A1 series and was built as part of the Long Range Shipbuilding Program of the United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM).
Aircraft carrier
On March 6, 1941, the US Navy took over the freighter and had it converted into an aircraft carrier at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News . Initially, the designation APV-1 (Transport and Aircraft Ferry) was used, when it was put into service, AVG-1 ( Escort Carrier, Auxiliary ) was used. It entered service on June 2, 1941 and was placed under the command of Donald B. Duncan. Before the USA entered the war , the possibilities of this type of ship were tested on the carrier, and important results were incorporated into the design of the later classes of escort aircraft carriers.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , Long Island was relocated to the Pacific , where it supplied Admiral Chester Nimitz's carrier fleet after the Battle of Midway . As early as December 1941, the Scouting 201 squadron (VS-201) with 17 Curtiss SOC and seven Brewster F2As were stationed on the ship. In the summer of 1942, VS-201 was replaced by the VGS-1 squadron, which was equipped with the same types of aircraft.
After a short intermediate phase were formed in the re-pilots who took Long Iceland at the battle of Guadalcanal in part. From August 13, 1942, their carrier aircraft took part in the fighting and supported the Marines in the fight against the Japanese defenders. Long Island planes were the first to land at Henderson Field , a conquered airfield on Guadalcanal . On August 20, 1942, it was reclassified as an Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier with the designation ACV-1. The planes were mostly Grumman F4F or Douglas TBD torpedo bombers; they played an important role in many famous battles.
After that, the ship was again responsible for training carrier pilots off San Diego for a year. On July 15, 1943, a reclassification to CVE-1 (Escort Aircraft Carrier) was made. From 1944 to 1945, Long Island supplied smaller outposts in the Pacific with aircraft and supplies. After defeating Japan, she took part in Operation Magic Carpet , the return of troops to the United States .
Passenger ship
On April 12, 1946, the Long Island was removed from the naval ship list and on April 24, 1947, it was sold for scrapping to the steel company Zidell Ship Dismantling Company in Portland (Oregon) . On March 12, 1948, Zidell sold the carrier to the Canada-Europe Line shipping company, whereupon the ship was converted to the Nelly passenger ship at the Albina Engineering & Machine Works shipyard in Portland . For some time, the former carrier transported immigrants from Bremerhaven to Melbourne and, after a further renovation, from 1953 to the USA and Canada . Occasionally, however , the Nelly also undertook trips to other areas, such as New Zealand .
She was sold to the University of the Seven Seas in 1953 and then served as the training ship Seven Seas for twelve years until a fire broke out on board on July 18, 1965 while crossing the Atlantic. The repairs lasted until June 1966 and in September of that year the ship was sold to the Erasmus University Rotterdam , which used the ship as a barge . Most recently, the Seven Seas served as accommodation for shipyard workers until it was finally scrapped in Ghent on May 4, 1977 .
A Curtiss SOC -3A Seagull of Scouting Squadron VS-201 on the deck of Long Island in December 1941
Landing of a Curtiss SOC of the VGS-1 on Long Island in April 1942
Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat and Curtiss SOC of VGS-1 in the Long Island hangar in June 1942
Web links
- Entry on NavSource (English)
- Picture as a barge in the Netherlands http://www.andimar.spanishspotters.com/ver_foto.php?fid=3374 ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Names of ships in the US Navy (accessed December 22, 2013)
- ^ Al Adcock: Escort Carriers in action , Warship Number 9, squadron / Signal publications, 1996, pp. 6-8