Lexington class aircraft carrier

The "Lexington" class aircraft carriers were the first operational aircraft carriers in the United States Navy (USS|Langley|CV-1|6 was a strictly developmental ship which only served for a short time as an active fleet unit before being converted to a seaplane tender AV-3). The ships were laid down and partly built as battlecruisers before being converted to carriers while under construction. "Saratoga", the third ship, was more complete than the second ship, "Constellation", when the vessels were under consideration for conversion, so "Saratoga" was continued and "Constellation" was scrapped. Successful wide-scale operations with these ships, compared to the very limited operations possible with the much smaller USS|Ranger|CV-4|6 convinced the Navy that larger carriers were more effective than smaller ones, a trend which has continued through the years; the modern day "Nimitz" class supercarriers are one hundred percent larger in tonnage than the "Midway" class ships of fifty years ago. Aside of their great size, their most innovative feature was the "hurricane bow," a configuration of carriers where the bow was sealed up to the flight deck; this turned out to be the most useful of the three possible configurations for a carrier's bow (the other two being an additional flying-off deck and an antiaircraft battery).

Development

The original battlecruiser design studies had much in common with Jackie Fisher's "large light cruiser" concept, studies were made on low-displacement battlecruisers with virtually no armor, armed with up to twenty guns in five quadruple turrets of 12" guns. A semi-finalized design came forth in 1916 with ten 14" guns in two twin and two triple turrets and very thin armor, with half of the boilers above the protective deck, on a displacement of 36,500 tons. By the time the battlecruiser design had been finalized, the ships had a conventional displacement of over 43,000 tons and were conventionally armed with eight 16" guns and 16 6" guns. The canceled battlecruisers were the last-ever use of the two-gun turret in US Navy ships, the subsequent WWII-era "fast battleships" used triple turrets exclusively.

The ships set the pattern for future American carrier design: Very large, long ships, with a topside flight deck, starboard-side island combining command and control spaces and the ship's funnels, and a capacious, remarkably deep hangar deck. With twenty feet, three inches (6.17 m) clear height, the "Lexingtons"' hangar deck was the largest in the world until the early-50s "Forrestal"-class supercarriers. The tall funnels ducted gases and smoke well away from the flight deck and avoided smoke-fouling problems common with other early carriers.Fact|date=October 2007

As commissioned, the aircraft carriers had a heavy cruiser-style battery of four dual convert|8|in|mm|0|sing=on gun turrets; the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair (later Bureau of Ships, now NAVSEA) had no confidence in aircraft as armament and equipped the vessels with the heavy guns even though they would have ripped up the flight deck if ever fired in anger. The experience of the "Fleet Problem" exercises of the 1930s proved BCR wrong, and the fleet quickly wished to remove the heavy 8" guns. Their official displacement on commissioning was 33,000 tons (in accordance with the Washington Treaty) even though in reality both ships were well in excess of that, 36,000 tons standard displacement and nearly 40,000 tons fully loaded with fuel, ammunition, aircraft and gasoline.

Shortly after Pearl Harbor, both ships' 8" batteries were lifted off them for use as shore-defense guns in Hawaii. On the "Lexington" these weapons were replaced by the 1.1"/75 (28mm) gun in quad mounts, which were better suited to anti-aircraft defense but nonetheless did not prove effective. They were replaced on "Saratoga" with 5" DP guns that were more suitable for carrier use, though "Lexington" was sunk at the Battle of Coral Sea before receiving her new guns.

Of the six canceled battlecruisers, two were named for battles (Lexington and Saratoga) and four for famous past ships of the U.S. Navy (Constellation, Constitution, United States and Ranger). The "Lexington" class carriers were the largest aircraft carriers in the fleet until the late-war "Midway"-class carriers.

There were two "Lexington"-class carriers: CV-2 USS "Lexington" (also called "Lady "Lex") and CV-3 USS "Saratoga" (also called "Sister "Sara"). Both vessels were subject to torpedo attack. Lady "Lex" was hit by between three and five torpedoes at the Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942. Although subject to flooding, the damage was contained and the ship began resuming operations. However, aviation gasoline fumes from ruptured tanks were ignited by a sparking motor-generator, causing a massive internal explosion which destroyed the below-decks command and damage control station. The fires became uncontrollable, and set off further violent explosions. The ship was abandoned and the blazing wreck sunk by own forces. The "Saratoga" was twice put out of action after attacks by Japanese submarines, the electrical propulsion machinery proving particularly vulnerable to water damage. However, in both cases the ship was able make port under her own steam. "Saratoga's" most important action was the Battle of the Eastern Solomons her aircraft sank the light carrier Ryūjō. After "Saratoga's" damage was repaired, she was overshadowed by the newer Essex-class carriers and was mostly relegated to backwater or training duties. Also, while hanger space was ample, the elevators used for lifting aircraft to the flight deck were too small for post-war jets. She survived to be disposed of in the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests after the war.

For the history of the class prior to the decision to convert two units, please see Lexington class battlecruiser.