Essex Class Carriers

The Essex class carriers were a series of twenty four capital ships in service with the US Navy between 1942 and 1991. They were used during World War II and the Cold War. Being more advanced than the Yorktown class that preceded them, they provided the United States of America with the powerful striking force it needed to win the war in the Pacific. After the war, they were modernized, with a new propulsion system, radars, and a larger flight deck. The last one to be decommissioned from service was the USS Lexington (CV-16) in 1991.

The Essex class aircraft carriers formed the core of the US Navy's Fast Carrier Task Force, which played a major part in the defeat of the Japanese fleet in the Pacific Theater of Operations. The design was essentially an enlarged Yorktown, unrestrained by the Washington Naval Treaty restrictions. The Essex class was built in three groups: Group 1 comprised 5 ships; Group 2, 18 ships; and Group 3, only 1 ship, totaling 24 aircraft carriers. The original plan was to build 32 ships, but 8 were cancelled in March 1945 as the United States was already winning the war.

Although they were involved in major combat actions, none of the Essex class aircraft carriers was lost during the war. Some of them had been damaged by kamikaze attacks, but they were repaired and put back into action. The USS Franklin was hit by two 500-lb (225-kg) bombs on March 19, 1945. These bombs penetrated the flight deck, landing on the hangar deck, causing fuel to explode, but the carrier did not sink. It would later be repaired.

Above, the USS Intrepid (CV-11) sailing off the coast of the Philippines at the end of 1944.

The aircraft carriers of the Essex class

The USS Essex (CV-9), the lead ship of the class, was commissioned in December 1942. The USS Yorktown (CV-10); Intrepid (CV-11); Hornet (CV-12); Franklin (CV-13); Ticonderoga (CV-14); Randolph (CV-15); Lexington (CV-16); Bunker Hill (CV-17); Wasp (CV-18); Hancock (CV-19); Benington (CV-20); Boxer (CV-21); Bon Homme Richard (CV-31); Leyte (CV-32); Kearsarge (CV-33).

Technical Description

The Essex class carrier was of convention design, with a long, unobstructed flight deck, an open bow, and a large island to starboard. This included the funnel, which was smaller than the ones in previous carriers. The Essex class carriers also had much better protection than the ones that preceded them. They had an additional armored deck at the hangar level, but it still did not have an armored flight deck as in the British Royal Navy carriers. The flight deck was fitted with two catapults. The carriers were equipped with three large elevators, with one of them being a deck-edge elevator, which proved extremely useful and popular. They had a heavy defensive armament, such as twelve 127-mm AA guns. During World War II, each one of them carried 36 fighters, 36 dive-bombers, and 18 torpedo-bombers, totaling 90 aircraft aboard.

In the postwar period, the Essex class carriers underwent a complicated series of modifications and rebuilds, almost all of them aimed at trying to keep pace with the introduction with ever larger and heavier jet aircraft. These modifications included an angled flight deck, new steam catapult, and new and more powerful propulsion systems, with new high-pressure boilers and geared steam turbines. The upgrade allowed some of these carriers to take part in the Vietnam War.

Specifications (original design)

Type: aircraft carrier

Displacement: 27,208 tons (standard); 34,881 tons (full load)

Length: 265 m (872 feet)

Beam: 45 m (147.5 feet)

Draft: 8.4 m (27.7 feet)

Propulsion System: 4 Westinghouse geared steam turbines, with 4 shafts, and 8 boilers, generating 150,000 sHP.

Maximum Speed: 32.7 knots

Range: 14,100 nautical miles (26,110 km)

Armament: twelve 127-mm (5-inch) and thirty two 40-mm AA guns.

Aircraft: 90

Compliment: 2,682 sailors, officers, and pilots

The USS Essex (CV-9), the first of the series and lead ship of her class.

The USS Lexington (CV-16), fully modernized and upgraded, with an angled flight deck.

Yermak (First Icebreaker)

The Yermak was the world's first icebreaker. This ship was also the first vessel to sail through the Arctic. Launched in 1899, it was designed by Admiral Stepan Makarov, who was an engineer and inventor. He was convinced Russia needed a strong and powerful vessel capable of forcing its way through the Arctic and even reaching the North Pole.

The Yermak entered service with the Russian Navy, under the Russian Empire, in 1900. It would endure the storms of revolutions, wars, and political upheavals, and it was still in service when the Soviet Union launched its first nuclear vessels. Before sailing through the Arctic, its first mission was to rescue the battleship Apraksin, which ran aground on the rocks of Gogland Island in the Gulf of Finland, taking on hundreds of tons of water. Trapped in the ice, the vessel faced destruction. Only the first icebreaker could reach it and save the crew.

During World War I, the Yermak led warships convoys from Reval to Helsingfors (Helsinki), carving channels for the Russian Navy's vessels to sail through and escape from the powerful German fleet. Later, when the Germans closed in, the Russian ships had to be evacuated from Helsinki itself. At the head of the icebound column stood the black hull of the icebreaker, dragging Russia’s warships through frozen seas to safety. Within weeks, the city fell, but, by then, the Russian fleet had gone.

By the 1930s, the Soviet Union was slowly recovering from civil war and chaos. The government needed to revive Arctic shipping, and the old icebreaker was called back into service. In 1934, for the first time since Makarov’s era, the Yermak pushed north into the Kara Sea. The ship had aged, but it was far from obsolete. Engineers fitted it with an amphibious aircraft – a striking innovation for its time. With aerial reconnaissance, the icebreaker could scout floes and channels far ahead, dramatically improving its effectiveness.

Specifications

Type: icebreaker

Displacement: 8,730 tons

Length: 97.5 m

Beam: 21.6 m

Draft: 7.3 m

Propulsion: 8 steam engines, with four shafts, fed by 6 boilers, generating 9,000 HP.

Maximum Speed: 12 knots

Compliment: 101.

Above, design drawing of the Yermak.

The first ice breaker. Photo taken in 1916.

USS Wasp (CV-7)

The USS Wasp (CV-7) was an American aircraft carrier which was used by the US Navy in World War II. She was the last of the pre-war carriers to be limited on tonnage by the 1922's Washington Naval Treaty. When she was ordered, the only requirement was to have the same capabilities as the Yorktown-class carrier on a 14,700-ton hull. With 219.5 m (720 feet) in length, Wasp's hull was shorter than the USS Ranger's by some 12 m (40 feet). However, she had a slightly greater beam. After only two years of service, she would be sunk by the Japanese submarine I-19 on September 15, 1942, off the coast of Guadalcanal Island.

Technical Description

The USS Wasp had an asymmetrical hull to offset the weight of the starboard-side island without the use of ballast and the fitting of the first deck-edge elevator. An unusual machinery arrangement was used with the forward and aft engine rooms being separated by two set of three-abreast boiler rooms. The boiler uptakes were vented out of a stack which was part of the starboard-side island.

Aside from her two flight deck catapults, the Wasp had catapults installed in both ends of her hangar deck, not just forward as in Yorktown. In addition to her two deck elevators, a deck-edge elevator was fitted on the port side of the forward hangar bay. She was powered by two Parsons steam turbines, with two shafts, and six water-tube boilers. As designed, she had an air group of 72 aircraft. This US Navy's carrier was fitted with one CXAM-1 radar.

Operational History

USS Wasp (CV-7) was laid down in 1936 and launched on April 4, 1939. After one year of sea trials, she was commissioned on April 25, 1940. She was first assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. In August 1941, she ferried P-40 aircraft to Iceland. After the United States entry into the war, she was used to escort high-value convoys from her base in Main to England.

By late May 1942, Wasp was transferred from the Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific to take part in the first phase of the island-hopping campaign of the Pacific Theater of Operations. Arriving too late for Midway, she was part of the covering force for the landings on Guadalcanal in August 1942. Thus, she remained in the Solomons area throughout August. On September 15, 1942, USS Wasp was hit by the Japanese submarine I-19, with three torpedoes which struck the ship near the forward gas tanks and magazines, while she was refueling aircraft.

Specifications

Type: aircraft carrier

Builder: Fore River Shipyard (General Dynamics)

Displacement: 14,700 tons standard; 18,450 tons full-load.

Length: 219.5 m (720 feet)

Beam: 30.5 m (100 feet)

Draft: 7.1 m (23.3 feet)

Propulsion: two Parsons steam turbines; two shafts; six water-tub boilers, generating 70,000 shp.

Maximum Speed: 29.5 knots

Range: 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km/ or 14,000 miles)

Compliment: 2,167 sailor and officers

Armament: eight 127-mm (5-inch) AA guns; sixteen 28-mm (1.1-inch) AA guns.

USS Wasp (CV-7) - flight operations during WW2 (footage)

Above, aerial view of USS Wasp in May 1942. Her flight deck full of aircraft.

USS Wasp after being struck by torpedoes on September 15, 1942. The fuel tanks and ammo have just blown up.

USS Wasp in late 1939, during sea trials.