USS Langley (CV-1)
The USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter (AC-3), the first electrically propelled ship of the United States Navy. After yet another conversion, from carrier to seaplane tender, she fought in World War II and was so damaged by Japanese bombing attacks that she was sunk by her escorts on 27 February, 1942.
Collier
Jupiter's keel was laid down on 18 October 1911 at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard of Vallejo, California. She was launched on 14 August 1912 sponsored by Mrs. Thomas F. Ruhm; and commissioned on 7 April 1913 under Commander Joseph M. Reeves. Her sister ships were USS Proteus, USS Cyclops, which disappeared without a trace (allegedly in the Bermuda Triangle) during World War I, and USS Nereus, which disappeared on the same route as Cyclops in World War II.
After successfully passing her trials, Jupiter embarked a United States Marine Corps detachment at San Francisco, California, and reported to the Pacific Fleet at Mazatlán Mexico, 27 April 1914, bolstering U.S. naval strength on the Mexican Pacific coast during the tense days of the Veracruz crisis. She remained on the Pacific coast until she departed for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 10 October. En route the collier steamed through the Panama Canal on Columbus Day, the first vessel to transit it from west to east.
Prior to America's entry into World War I, she cruised the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico attached to the Atlantic Fleet Auxiliary Division. The ship arrived Norfolk, Virginia, on 6 April 1917, and, assigned to NOTS, interrupted her coaling operations by two cargo voyages to France in June 1917 and November 1918. She was back in Norfolk 23 January 1919 whence she sailed for Brest, France, 8 March for coaling duty in European waters to expedite the return of victorious veterans to the United States. Upon reaching Norfolk 17 August, the ship was transferred to the west coast. Her conversion to an aircraft carrier was authorized 11 July 1919, and she sailed to Hampton Roads, Virginia, 12 December where she decommissioned 24 March 1920.
Carrier
Jupiter was converted into the first U.S. aircraft carrier at the Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, for the purpose of conducting experiments in the new idea of seaborne aviation. On 11 April 1920, her name was changed to Langley in honor of Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American astronomer, physicist, aeronautics pioneer and aircraft engineer, and she was given hull classification symbol CV-1. She recommissioned 20 March 1922 with Commander Kenneth Whiting in command. The naming of Langley was one of many shots in a long feud between Orville Wright and the United States Government.
As the first American aircraft carrier, Langley was the scene of numerous momentous events. On 17 October 1922 Lieutenant Virgil C. Griffin piloted the first plane, a Vought VE-7, launched from her decks. Though this was not the first time an airplane had taken off from a ship, and though Langley was not the first ship with an installed flight-deck, this one launching was of monumental importance to the modern U.S. Navy. The era of the aircraft carrier was born introducing into the Navy what was to become the vanguard of its forces in the future. With Langley underway nine days later, Lieutenant Commander Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier made the first landing in an Aeromarine 39B. On 18 November Commander Whiting, at the controls of a PT, was the first aviator to be catapulted from a carrier's deck.
By 15 January 1923 Langley had begun flight operations and tests in the Caribbean Sea for carrier landings. In June she steamed to Washington, DC, to give a demonstration at a flying exhibition before civil and military dignitaries. She arrived Norfolk 13 June and commenced training along the Atlantic coast and Caribbean which carried her through the end of the year. In 1924 Langley participated in more maneuvers and exhibitions, and spent the summer at Norfolk for repairs and alterations, she departed for the west coast late in the year and arrived San Diego, California, on 29 November to join the Pacific Battle Fleet. For the next twelve years she operated off the California coast and Hawaii engaged in training fleet units, experimentation, pilot training, and tactical-fleet problems.
Seaplane tender
On 25 October 1936 she put into Mare Island Navy Yard, California, for overhaul and conversion to a seaplane tender. Though her career as a carrier had ended, her well-trained pilots proved invaluable to the next two carriers, USS Lexington and USS Saratoga.
Langley completed conversion 26 February 1937 and was assigned hull classification symbol AV-3 on 11 April. She was assigned to Aircraft Scouting Force and commenced her tending operations out of Seattle, Washington, Sitka, Alaska, Pearl Harbor, and San Diego, California. She departed for a brief deployment with the Atlantic Fleet from 1 February to 10 July 1939, and then steamed to assume her duties with the Pacific fleet at Manila arriving 24 September.
At the outbreak of World War II, Langley was anchored off Cavite, Philippines. She departed 8 December and proceeded to Balikpapan, Borneo, and Darwin, Australia, where she arrived 1 January 1942. Until 11 January Langley assisted the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in running antisubmarine patrols out of Darwin. She was then assigned to American-British-Dutch-Australian forces assembling in Indonesia to challenge the Japanese thrust in that direction. She departed Fremantle, Western Australia, 22 February in convoy, and left the convoy five days later to deliver thirty two Curtiss P-40s to Tjilatjap, Java.
Early in the morning 27 February, Langley rendezvoused with her antisubmarine screen, destroyers USS Whipple and USS Edsall. At 11:40 nine twin-engine enemy bombers attacked her. The first and second Japanese strikes were unsuccessful; but during the third, Langley took five hits. Aircraft topside burst into flames, steering was impaired, and the ship took a ten-degree list to port. Unable to negotiate the narrow mouth of Tjilatjap Harbor, Langley went dead in the water as inrushing water flooded her engine room. At 13:32 the order to abandon ship was passed. The escorting destroyers fired nine four-inch shells and two torpedoes into the old tender to ensure she didn't fall into enemy hands. She went down about 75 miles (120 km) south of Tjilatjap with a loss of sixteen.
Pop Culture References
- Asuka Langley Soryu from the animated series Neon Genesis Evangelion is named after this carrier, as well as the Japanese carrier Sōryū.
- In the movie Midway (1976), Matt Garth (portrayed by Charlton Heston) states that he once served on the "ol'Langley".
See also
- USS Langley for other Navy ships of the same name.
- List of aircraft carriers
- List of World War II ships