USS Saratoga (CV-3)

The USS Saratoga (CV-3) was a Lexington-class aircraft carrier serving the US Navy from the late 1920s through the end of the Second World War. Only the second US ship built specifically to serve as an aircraft carrier, Saratoga was also the only pre-war carrier to survive World War II. Commissioned in late November 1927 under the command of Captain Harry E. Yarnell, she is notable for having been the vessel on which future fleet Admiral Marc Mitscher served as her first air officer.

Construction

Affectionately known as "Striped-Stacked Sara" (for her funnel, painted with a wide black stripe for easy identification by pilots), Saratoga was actually ordered as a battle cruiser during the First World War. Construction was not begun until September 1920 however, when her keel was laid at the New York Shipbuilding Company yard in Camden, New Jersey. In July 1922, she was reclassified as a carrier. "Sara" slid into the water in April 1925, but was not commissioned until two and a half years later.

Saratoga was 880 feet in length with a beam of 106 feet and a total displacement of 38,750 tons when launched (this had grown to 54,000 tons by the end of World War II). With sixteen boilers, she was propelled by four geared turbines and an electric drive. Crew compliment was 2,122 officers and seamen, and she could carry up to 91 aircraft.

Repairs and Upgrades

During the 1930s, Saratoga underwent regularly scheduled maintenance and repairs at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. During her stay at this facility starting in January 1941, Saratoga became one of the first vessels to be equipped with the new RCA CXAM-1 Radar system, allowing for the detection of enemy vessels and aircraft from up to 70 miles away. At the same time, her forward flight deck was widened and a starboard hull blister was installed in addition to extra anti-aircraft armaments.

In early 1942, she returned to Bremerton to address damage caused by a torpedo hit off the coast of Oahu. In addition, her anti-aircraft guns, which had proved inadequate, were upgraded. In September 1942, Saratoga had to be towed to Tongatapu to restore power after a torpedo took out her engines; afterwards, she returned to Pearl Harbor for more extensive repairs, lasting into November.

After several months of operations in the South Pacific, Saratoga underwent extensive maintenance and overhaul in San Francisco during December 1943.

Saratoga's next overhaul was in Bremerton beginning in early June 1944 and lasting into September. She returned to Bremerton in mid-March of 1945 after being hit by five bombs while off the coast of Chichi Jima in the Bonins. Repairs took over two months.

Wartime Service

In the decade leading up to U.S. entry into the Second World War, Saratoga and her crew were instrumental in developing the science of naval aviation that would eventually allow the Allies to prevail against the Japanese Empire in the Pacific. During the war, Saratoga served in several major campaigns, including the invasion of Bougainvillea in 1943 which severely crippled Japanese Army Air Service operations in that area.

In 1944, she left the main US areas of operations to assist the vessels of other Allied nations (Australia, Britain and Free France) in developing their own carrier strategies in the region. The war came to an end for Saratoga in March of 1945. Although back in Bristol fashion by the end of May, she was assigned to pilot training for the duration.

After the surrender of Japan, Saratoga served as a transport vessel during operation Magic Carpet. By the end of operations, Saratoga had been made obsolete by the new Essex and Midway carriers then coming into service. Her final mission was Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll in July 1946, where she was used in the atomic bomb tests. Though she survived the first blast, the second sent her to the bottom on 25 July.

Asbestos Risk on the USS Saratoga (CV-3)

Asbestos exposure danger was usually exacerbated by damage due to accidents, storms and combat. For Saratoga, the first wound occurred off the coast of Oahu in January 1942 when a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-6 struck her hull below the waterline. Three of the fire rooms were flooded and six crewmen were killed as a result.

At the end of August of that year, she was struck by another torpedo while in the Solomons, damaging her starboard blister. This shorted out her turbo-electric system, leaving her without power.

Saratoga was hit by a kamikaze plane in February 1945, but damage was contained. However, she became the target of a concentrated attack in March 1945 during operations in the Bonins, when she was struck with bombs five times inside of three minutes. In addition to 123 casualties, her forward flight deck was destroyed, the starboard hull was breached and there was massive fire damage to the hangar deck.

Using asbestos insulation in the construction of naval vessels was required by law in the United States in the 1930s, after a deadly fire on a cruise ship caused the deaths of more than 100 passengers and crew. Saratoga used asbestos-containing materials heavily, especially in boilers and engineering compartments, and to insulate compartments throughout the ship.

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Sources

Friedman, Norman. U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1983)

Mooney, James. Dictionary of American Fighting Ships. (Washington DC; Department of the Navy, 1991).