USS Takanis Bay (CVE-89) was a of the United States Navy, which served during World War II. She was named after Takanis Bay on the west side of Yakobi Island in Alaska (near Sitka). Launched in March 1944 and commissioned in April, she served as a carrier training vessel, operating off of San Diego. Following the end of hostilities, she repatriated troops from the Pacific theater as part of Operation Magic Carpet.
Design and description
thumb|alt=A blueprint showing the side profile of an aircraft carrier.|left|A side profile of the design of .|page=3
Takanis Bay was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carriers ever built. Built to stem heavy losses during the Battle of the Atlantic, they came into service in late 1943, by which time the U-boat threat was already in retreat. Although some did see service in the Atlantic, the majority were utilized in the Pacific, ferrying aircraft, providing logistics support, and conducting close air support for the island-hopping campaigns. The Casablanca-class carriers were built on the standardized Type S4-S2-BB3 hull, a lengthened variant of the hull, and specifically designed to be mass-produced using welded prefabricated sections. This allowed them to be produced at unprecedented speeds: the final ship of her class, , was delivered to the Navy just 101 days after the laying of her keel.
Takanis Bay was long overall ( at the waterline), had a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced standard, which increased to with a full load. To carry out flight operations, the ship had a hangar deck and a flight deck. Her compact size necessitated the installation of an aircraft catapult at her bow, and there were two aircraft elevators to facilitate movement of aircraft between the flight and hangar deck: one each fore and aft.
She was powered by four Babcock & Wilcox Express D boilers that raised of steam at . The steam generated by these boilers fed two Skinner Unaflow reciprocating steam engines, delivering to two propeller shafts. This allowed her to reach speeds of , with a cruising range of at . For armament, one /38 caliber dual-purpose gun was mounted on the stern. Additional anti-aircraft defense was provided by eight Bofors anti-aircraft guns in single mounts and twelve Oerlikon cannons mounted around the perimeter of the deck. By 1945, Casablanca-class carriers had been modified to carry twenty Oerlikon cannons and sixteen Bofors guns; the doubling of the latter was accomplished by putting them into twin mounts. Sensors onboard consisted of a SG surface-search radar and a SK air-search radar.
Although Casablanca-class escort carriers were intended to function with a crew of 860 and an embarked squadron of 50 to 56, the exigencies of wartime often necessitated the inflation of the crew count. They were designed to operate with 27 aircraft, but the hangar deck could accommodate much more during transport or training missions.
Construction
The escort carrier was laid down on 16 December 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract, MC hull 1126, by Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington. She was launched on 10 March; sponsored by Mrs. Alden R. Sanborn; transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned on 15 April 1944, Captain Anthony R. Brady in command.
Service history
After a brief shakedown, Takanis Bay reported to Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, where she operated in support of carrier training operations. On 22 May, the first landing was made on the carrier's flight deck. Until the end of hostilities with Japan on 15 August 1945, a steady stream of carrier squadrons was trained onboard Takanis Bay, rotating off for service on a frontline carrier once they had finished qualifications. In this period, between 24 May 1944 to 28 August 1945, she qualified a record 2,509 pilots. She also engaged in the most landings of any Casablanca-class carrier: 20,159 landings. This record, at the time, was only surpassed by the venerable frontline fleet carriers and . On 24 July 1945, pilots of VC-20 made 446 landings on a single day. Remarkably, only a single pilot died throughout her career as a training carrier, albeit accidents were frequent.
On 28 August 1945, she left San Diego, bound for Pearl Harbor, where she was assigned to Carrier Transport Squadron, Pacific Fleet. She joined the fleet of carriers repatriating American servicemen from around the Pacific theater. Between 28 August and 3 January 1946, she ferried about 6,500 troops. Firstly, in two trips, she returned 1,300 servicemen from Hawaii to San Diego. Late in September, the carrier was officially assigned to the Operation Magic Carpet fleet. While docked in San Diego, bunks for 800 passengers were installed in the hangar deck. Once modifications were complete, she made two more round trip voyages to Hawaii, along with a trip to the Tokyo Bay area.
Takanis Bay arrived at San Pedro, California, on 2 January 1946. On 3 January, she was released from the "Magic Carpet" fleet, and ordered to Tacoma, Washington. She was moved to Puget Sound in April, where inactivation work was begun, and she was decommissioned on 18 June. Takanis Bay was reclassified CVU-89 on 12 June 1955 and was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 August 1959. She was sold on 29 June 1960 to Hyman-Michaels Company, Chicago, Illinois, for scrap and broken up in Portland, Oregon.
<gallery widths=250px heights=200px>
File:Crashed Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat aboard USS Takanis Bay (CVE-89), circa in 1945.jpg|An F6F-5 Hellcat on Takanis Bay after a barrier crash
File:USS Takanis Bay (CVE-89) during inactivation at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, 23 May 1946 (871-46).jpg|Takanis Bay during her inactivation at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, 1946.|alt=
File:F4U-1 Corsair landing aboard USS Takanis Bay (CVE-89), circa in 1944.jpg|An F4U-1 Corsair making the 5,000th landing aboard Takanis Bay
</gallery>