USS Commencement Bay (CVE-105)

History
United States
Name:	USS Commencement Bay
Builder:	Todd Pacific Shipyards
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
Fate:	Scrapped sometime after 1971
General characteristics
Class & 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:	2 × 5 in (130 mm) guns (2×1) 36 × 40 mm AA guns
Aircraft carried:	34

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. 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.

References

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

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.