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 navy's first electrically-propelled ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the scrapping of the partially-built battlecruisers "Lexington" and "Saratoga", freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers USS|Lexington|CV-2|1 and USS|Saratoga|CV-3|1. The "Langley" was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion, to a seaplane tender, "Langley" fought in World War II. She was so badly damaged by Japanese bombing attacks that she was sunk by her escorts on 27 February, 1942.

Collier

President William H. Taft attended the ceremony when"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|Cyclops|AC-4|6, which disappeared without a trace (allegedly in the Bermuda Triangle) during World War I, and USS|Proteus|AC-9|6, and USS|Nereus|AC-10|6, 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. The first voyage transported a naval aviation detachment of 7 officers and 122 men to England.Tate, Jackson R., RADM USN "We Rode the Covered Wagon" "United States Naval Institute Proceedings" October 1978 p.62] It was the first United States aviation detachment to arrive in Europe and was commanded by LT Kenneth Whiting, who became "Langeley"s first executive officer five years later. "Jupiter" 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.Tate, Jackson R., RADM USN "We Rode the Covered Wagon" "United States Naval Institute Proceedings" October 1978 p.66] 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.Tate, Jackson R., RADM USN "We Rode the Covered Wagon" "United States Naval Institute Proceedings" October 1978 p.67]

A relatively unique feature of "Langley" was provision for a carrier pigeon house on the stern between the 5"/51 caliber guns.Tate, Jackson R., RADM USN "We Rode the Covered Wagon" "United States Naval Institute Proceedings" October 1978 p.65] Pigeons had been carried aboard seaplanes for message transport since World War I and were to be carried on aircraft operated from "Langley". The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard while "Langley" was undergoing conversion.Pride, A.M., VADM USN "Comment and Discussion" "United States Naval Institute Proceedings" January 1979 p.89] As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole flock was released while "Langley" was anchored off Tangier Island the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard. The pigeons never went to sea again and the former pigeon house became the executive officer's quarters; but the early plans for conversion of "Lexington" and "Saratoga" included a compartment for pigeons.

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, "Lexington" and "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.

On the entry of the US into World War II, "Langley" was anchored off Cavite, Philippines. On 8 December, following the invasion of the Philippines by Japan, she departed Cavite for Balikpapan, in the Dutch East Indies. As Japanese advances continued, "Langley" departed for Australia, arriving in Darwin on 1 January 1942. She then became part of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) naval forces. Until 11 January, "Langley" assisted the Royal Australian Air Force in running antisubmarine patrols out of Darwin."Langley" went to Fremantle, Australia, to pick up Allied aircraft and transport them to Southeast Asia. Carrying 32 P-40 fighter planes belonging to the United States Army Air Forces 49th Pursuit Group, she and a convoy departed Fremantle on 22 February. "Langley" left the convoy five days later and delivered the planes to Tjilatjap (Cilacap), Java.

In the early hours of 27 February, "Langley" rendezvoused with her antisubmarine screen, destroyers USS|Whipple|DD-217|2 and USS|Edsall|DD-219|2. At 11:40, about 75 miles (120 km) south of Tjilatjap, nine twin-engine Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service's "Takao Kokutai", led by Lieutenant Jiro Adachi, attacked her. The first and second Japanese strikes were unsuccessful, but during the third, "Langley" took five hits and 16 crew members were killed. Aircraft topside burst into flames, steering was impaired, and the ship developed a ten-degree list to port. Unable to negotiate the narrow mouth of Tjilatjap harbor, "Langley" went dead in the water, as her engine room flooded. At 13:32, the order to abandon ship was passed. The escorting destroyers fired nine four-inch shells and two torpedoes into "Langley", to ensure she didn't fall into enemy hands, and she sank.

See also

* List of aircraft carriers
* List of World War II ships

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-l/cv1.htm Images on Naval Historical Center page]

Notes

References

*USS Langley (CV-1) (formerly Jupiter (Collier #3); later AV-3), NavSource Online, http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/01.htm
*Tagaya, Osamu. Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko Betty Units of World War 2 ISBN 1 84176 082 X
*Messimer, Dwight (1983). Pawns of War: The Loss of the USS Langley and the USS Pecos. United States Naval Institute