USS Commencement Bay

USS Commencement Bay (CVE-105) (ex-St. Joseph Bay), the lead ship of her class, was an escort carrier and later helicopter carrier of the United States Navy, used mostly as a training ship.

USS Commencement Bay in early 1945
History
United States
Name: USS Commencement Bay
Builder: Todd Pacific Shipyards
Laid down: 23 September 1943
Launched: 9 May 1944
Commissioned: 27 November 1944
Decommissioned: 30 November 1946
Reclassified:
  • Helicopter Carrier, CVHE-105, 12 June 1955
  • Cargo Ship and Aircraft Ferry, AKV-37, 7 May 1959
Stricken: 1 April 1971
Fate: Sold for scrap, 25 August 1972
General characteristics
Class and type: Commencement Bay-class escort carrier
Displacement: 10,900 long tons (11,100 t)[1]
Length: 557 ft (170 m)
Beam: 75 ft (23 m)
Draft: 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)
Propulsion: 2-shaft geared turbines, 16,000 shp
Speed: 19 knots (22 mph; 35 km/h)
Complement: 1,066
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 34

Construction and service

Commencement Bay was launched 9 May 1944 by Todd Pacific Shipyards, Tacoma, Washington; sponsored by Mrs. F. Eves; and commissioned 27 November 1944, Captain Roscoe Leroy Bowman in command.

Commencement Bay reported at Seattle 1 February 1945 for duty as a training ship in Puget Sound until 2 October. During this time she trained 545 officers and 5,053 men of precommissioning crews for sister escort carriers, and qualified 249 pilots of eight air groups in carrier takeoffs and landings. She sailed from Bremerton 21 October 1945, and arrived at Pearl Harbor 4 November for training and to conduct carrier qualifications until sailing 27 November for Seattle and Tacoma.

After visits to Los Angeles and San Pedro, she returned to Tacoma 28 January, where she was placed out of commission in reserve 30 November 1946. She was re-classified CVHE-105, 12 June 1955; and AKV-37, 7 May 1959. Commencement Bay was struck from the Navy List on 1 April 1971 before being sold for scrap on 25 August 1972.[2]

References

Citations
  1. Silverstone, Paul H. (1965). US Warships of World War 2. USA: Naval Institute Press. p. 444. ISBN 0-87021-773-9.
  2. Bauer & Roberts 1991, p. 131.

Bibliography

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

  • Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-26202-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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