USS Casablanca

USS Casablanca (AVG/ACV/CVE-55) was an American escort aircraft carrier intended for transfer to the British Royal Navy and named Ameer. She would be commissioned into the United States Navy as the lead ship of her class, named after the naval battle, at the city of the same name, that had taken place in 1942.

USS Casablanca (CVE-55), first of her class and the first escort carrier designed and built as such, was placed in commission at Astoria, Oregon, 8 July 1943.
History
United States
Name:
  • Ameer (1942)
  • Alazon Bay (1943)
  • Casablanca (1943–1947)
Namesake:
Ordered: as a Type S4-S2-BB3 hull, MCE hull 1092[1]}
Awarded: 18 June 1942
Builder: Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington
Cost: $6,033,429.05[2]
Yard number: 301[1]
Way number: 7[2]
Laid down: 3 November 1942
Launched: 5 April 1943
Sponsored by: Eleanor Roosevelt
Commissioned: 8 July 1943
Decommissioned: 10 June 1946
Renamed:
  • Alazon Bay, 23 January 1943
  • Casablanca, 3 April 1943
Identification:
Fate: Sold for scrap, 23 April 1947
General characteristics [3][4]
Class and type: Casablanca-class escort carrier
Displacement:
Length:
  • 512 ft 3 in (156.13 m) (oa)
  • 490 ft (150 m) (wl)
Beam:
Draft: 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m) (max)
Installed power:
  • 4 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers
  • 9,000 shp (6,700 kW)
Propulsion:
Speed: 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Range: 10,240 nmi (18,960 km; 11,780 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:
  • Total:910–916 officers and men
    • Embarked Squadron:50–56
    • Ship's Crew:860
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 27 aircraft
Aviation facilities:
Service record
Part of: United States Pacific Fleet (1943–1946)

Construction

Assigned the name Ameer and the designator AVG-55, she became ACV-55 on 20 August 1942.[5] She was laid down 3 November 1942, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull 1092, by Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington; renamed Alazon Bay on 22 January 1943; renamed Casablanca on 3 April 1943;[6] launched on 5 April 1943; sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt; acquired by the Navy on 8 July 1943, and commissioned the same day, Commander W. W. Gallaway in command. She then reported to the Pacific Fleet. She was redesignated CVE-55 on 15 July 1943.[5]

Service history

Casablanca operated in the Strait of Juan de Fuca as a training ship for escort carrier crews from the time of her commissioning until August 1944. On 24 August, she cleared San Francisco, carrying men, airplanes, and aviation gasoline to Manus Island, a major base for western Pacific operations. Returning to Seattle, on 8 October, she resumed her training operations in Puget Sound until 22 January 1945, when she began a repair period at San Diego.[5]

Putting to sea on 13 March, Casablanca called at Pearl Harbor, then delivered passengers and aircraft brought from the West Coast to the island of Guam. Acting as a transport ship for passengers, aircraft, and aviation gasoline, she operated between Samar, Manus, and Palau, until 12 May, when she put back for a West Coast overhaul. She returned with passengers to Pearl Harbor, on 24 June, and through the summer transported sailors and aviators from the West Coast to Pearl Harbor and Guam.[5]

After brief employment in carrier qualification training off Saipan in August, she carried homeward-bound US servicemen to San Francisco, arriving on 24 September. Continuing to aid in the homecoming of soldiers, sailors, and Marines from the Pacific Theater, Casablanca carried passengers on a voyage from the West Coast to Pearl Harbor in September and October, and then in November, she made a voyage from Pearl Harbor, to Espiritu Santo and Nouméa to recover more passengers. Her last voyage on this duty in Operation Magic Carpet, from 8 December 1945 to 16 January 1946, was from San Francisco to Yokohama. Casablanca cleared San Francisco, on 23 January, for Norfolk, Virginia, arriving on 10 February. There she was decommissioned on 10 June 1946, and sold on 23 April 1947.[5]

Awards
  • Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
  • World War II Victory Medal
  • Navy Occupation Medal with "ASIA" clasp

References
  1. Kaiser Vancouver 2010.
  2. MARCOM.
  3. Navsource 2018.
  4. Hazegray 1998.
  5. DANFS Casablanca 2016.
  6. DANFS Alazon Bay 2015.

Sources
  • "Cassablanca". Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  • "Alazon Bay". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History and Heritage Command. 11 June 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2017. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  • "Casablanca (CVE-55)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History and Heritage Command. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2017. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  • "Kaiser Vancouver, Vancouver WA". www.ShipbuildingHistory.com. 27 November 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  • "USS Casablanca (CVE-55)". Navsource.org. 15 December 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  • "World Aircraft Carriers List: US Escort Carriers, S4 Hulls". Hazegray.org. 14 December 1998. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  • Photo gallery of USS Casablanca (CVE-55) at NavSource Naval History


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