USS Puget Sound (CVE-113)

Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristics

USS Puget Sound was a Template:Sclass of the United States Navy. The Commencement Bay class were built during World War II, and were an improvement over the earlier Template:Sclass, which were converted from oil tankers. They were capable of carrying an air group of 33 planes and were armed with an anti-aircraft battery of [[5"/38 caliber gun|Template:Convert]], [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|Template:Cvt]], and [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|Template:Cvt]] guns. The ships were capable of a top speed of Template:Convert, and due to their origin as tankers, had extensive fuel storage.

Design

In 1941, as United States participation in World War II became increasingly likely, the US Navy embarked on a construction program for escort carriers, which were converted from transport ships of various types. Many of the escort carrier types were converted from C3-type transports, but the Template:Sclasss were instead rebuilt oil tankers. These proved to be very successful ships, and the Template:Sclass, authorized for Fiscal Year 1944, were an improved version of the Sangamon design. The new ships were faster, had improved aviation facilities, and had better internal compartmentation.Template:Sfn They proved to be the most successful of the escort carriers, and the only class to be retained in active service after the war, since they were large enough to operate newer aircraft.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Puget Sound was Template:Cvt long overall, with a beam of Template:Cvt at the waterline, which extended to Template:Cvt at maximum. She displaced Template:Convert at full load, of which Template:Cvt could be fuel oil (though some of her storage tanks were converted to permanently store seawater for ballast), and at full load she had a draft of Template:Cvt. The ship's superstructure consisted of a small island. She had a complement of 1,066 officers and enlisted men.Template:Sfn

The ship was powered by two Allis-Chalmers geared steam turbines, each driving one screw propeller, using steam provided by four Combustion Engineering-manufactured water-tube boilers. The propulsion system was rated to produce a total of Template:Cvt for a top speed of Template:Convert. Given the very large storage capacity for oil, the ships of the Commencement Bay class could steam for some Template:Convert at a speed of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn

Her defensive anti-aircraft armament consisted of two [[5"/38 caliber gun|Template:Cvt]] dual-purpose guns in single mounts, thirty-six [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|Template:Cvt Bofors guns]], and twenty [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|Template:Cvt Oerlikon light AA cannon]]s. The Bofors guns were placed in three quadruple and twelve twin mounts, while the Oerlikon guns were all mounted individually. She carried 33 planes, which could be launched from two aircraft catapults. Two elevators transferred aircraft from the hangar to the flight deck.Template:Sfn

Service history

File:USS Puget Sound (CVE-113).jpg

Puget Sound underway soon after entering service in June 1944

The first fifteen ships of the Commencement Bay class were ordered on 23 January 1943, allocated to Fiscal Year 1944.Template:Sfn The ship was part of this order, which was allocated to the Todd-Pacific Shipyards in Tacoma, Washington. She was originally laid down on 12 May 1944, under the name Hobart Bay, but on 5 June, the seaplane tender Puget Sound was renamed Salisburg Sound and Hobart Bay took the name Puget Sound. The new escort carrier was launched on 20 November, and after completing fitting out work, was commissioned into the fleet on 18 June 1945. The ship then conducted her initial sea trials, after which repairs and modifications were made at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the ship's namesake Navy facility. She got underway on 6 July for San Diego, California for a shakedown cruise. While in San Diego, she took on Marine Air Group (MAG) 6. On 8 September, she left for Pearl Harbor, where she took part in training exercises in preparation for occupation duties in Japan, which had recently surrendered, ending World War II.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

On 14 October, Puget Sound arrived in Tokyo Bay. She contributed her aircraft to anti-mine patrols to clear the way for the Tenth United States Army to land at Matsuyama and Nagoya as part of the occupation force. She thereafter departed to participate in a cruise to the Philippines, Hong Kong, and then the Mariana Islands, during which she carried out various tactical training exercises. She embarked surplus aircraft while in Apra Harbor, Guam, before departing for Pearl Harbor on 6 January 1946. She unloaded the planes there and then proceeded on to San Diego, arriving there on 23 January. There, MAG 6 left the ship to clear room for Puget Sound to serve as a repatriation transport as part of Operation Magic Carpet. She made two such voyages between San Diego and Pearl Harbor, and another from Alameda, California, and Okinawa over the course of February to May. She transported some 1,200 returning veterans along with aircraft no longer needed in the western Pacific.Template:Sfn

On 24 May, Puget Sound sailed north to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where she was prepared to be deactivated and assigned to the reserve. She was decommissioned on 18 October and assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet based in Tacoma.Template:Sfn Ten of the Commencement Bay-class ships saw significant service postwar as anti-submarine warfare (ASW) carriers, but they were small and had difficulty operating the new Grumman AF Guardian patrol planes, so the rest of the class remained laid up, and they were soon replaced in the ASW role by much larger Template:Sclasss.Template:Sfn On 12 June 1955, she was assigned the new hull number CVHE-113, and later that decade, she was reclassified as a cargo ship and aircraft transport, with the hull number AKV-13. She remained in the Navy's inventory until she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1960. She was sold to the Nicholai Joffee Corporation for scrap on 10 January 1962.Template:Sfn She was then towed to Hong Kong, where she was broken up later that year.Template:Sfn

References

• Template:Cite DANFSTemplate:PD-notice

External links

• navsource.net: USS Puget Sound
• hazegray.org: USS Puget Sound