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USSCommencement Bay
Class overview
Builders	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding, Washington
Operators	United States Navy
Preceded by	Casablanca class
Succeeded by	None
Built	1943–1945
In service	1944–1957
Planned	35
Completed	19
Cancelled	16
Scrapped	19
General characteristics
Type	Escort carrier
Displacement	10,900long tons (11,075 t) standard 24,100 long tons (24,487 t) full load
Length	525 ft (160 m)wl 557 ft 1 in (169.80 m)oa 501 ft (153 m) (fd)
Beam	75 ft (23 m) 105 ft 2 in (32.05 m) flight deck
Draft	30 ft 8 in (9.35 m)
Installed power	16,000 shp (11,931 kW)
Propulsion	4 ×Boilers 2 × Allis-Chambersgeared steam turbines 2 × screws
Speed	19knots (22 mph; 35 km/h)
Complement	1,066 officers and men
Armament	2 ×5 inches (127 mm) guns (1 × 2) 36 ×40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors gun (3 × 4, 12 × 2) 20 ×20 mm (0.8 in) Oerlikon cannons
Aircraft carried	34

TheCommencement Bay-class escort aircraft carriers were the last class ofescort carriers built for theUS Navy inWorld War II.

The ships were based on thehull of the Maritime Commission typeT3 tanker, which gave them a displacement of approximately 23,000 tons and a length of 557 feet (170 m). Unlike most earlier escort carrier classes, which were laid down as something else and converted toaircraft carriers mid-construction, theCommencement Bays were built as carriers from the keel up. Their general layout was similar to theSangamon-classescort carriers, but some of the Sangamon's engineering shortcomings were addressed.

They entered service late inWorld War II –USS Commencement Bay launched on 9 May 1944 – so most of them saw little or no operational service. Thirty-five of them were ordered but many were cancelled prior to completion. Nineteen saw commissioned service in the US Navy, four were broken up on the ways at the end of the war, two were accepted from the builders but never commissioned, and the remainder were cancelled before being laid down.

After the war they were seen as potentialhelicopter,anti-submarine, or auxiliary (transport) carriers, and a number of ships served in these roles during theKorean War. The oncomingJet Age ended their careers, as the ships were no longer large enough to safely carry the much larger jet aircraft of the late 1950s, and all units were out of service or reclassified by 1960.

All of theCommencement Bay-class escort carriers that were laid down were built by theSeattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation (a.k.a.Todd Pacific Shipyards) in theCommencement Bay,Tacoma, Washington yard, in addition to the planned (but unnamed) ships CVE-128 through CVE-131. Planned (but unnamed) ships CVE-132 through CVE-139 were to be built byKaiser Shipbuilding Company, inVancouver, Washington, but were never laid down.

• List of ship classes of the Second World War

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCommencement Bay class aircraft carriers.

• USSCommencement Bay Class Escort Carriers from Global Security.Org
• USSCommencement Bay Class from Battleships-Cruisers.co.uk

• Escort aircraft carrier classes
• Commencement Bay-class escort carriers
• World War II escort aircraft carriers of the United States
• World War II aircraft carriers of the United States
• Cold War aircraft carriers of the United States
• Korean War aircraft carriers of the United States

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• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2017
• Articles needing additional references from July 2008
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• Commons category link is on Wikidata