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USS Charger
Escort carrier / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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USS Charger (CVE-30) was an escort carrier of the United States Navy during World War II converted from a commercial C3-P&C cargo/passenger liner hull built as Rio de la Plata intended for the Moore-McCormack company's American Republics Line serving the east coast of South America.[note 1] The ship was requisitioned for conversion to an escort carrier type intended for Royal Navy use and initially commissioned as HMS Charger (D27). Days later the transfer was rescinded with the ship returning to U.S. Navy control to become USS Charger which operated throughout the war as a training ship on the Chesapeake Bay with two ferry missions to Bermuda and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
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History | |
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Name |
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Namesake | Royal Navy name retained |
Ordered | 29 November 1939 |
Builder | Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania |
Cost | $2,720,800 (1939 contract) |
Yard number | 188 |
Laid down | 19 January 1940 |
Launched | 1 March 1941 |
Acquired | 1 August 1941 (delivery to Navy for conversion) |
Commissioned | 3 March 1942 |
Decommissioned | 15 March 1946 |
Reclassified |
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Fate |
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General characteristics | |
Class and type | Charger-class escort carrier |
Displacement | 15,125 long tons (15,368 t) |
Length | 492 ft (150 m) |
Beam |
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Draft | 26 ft 3 in (8.00 m) |
Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
Complement | 856 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 30+ |
After decommissioning in March 1946 the ship was sold in January 1947 to become the Italian Fairsea engaged largely in refugee and immigrant voyages from Europe to Australia. After a disabling engine room fire in January 1969 the ship was sold for scrap in Italy.