USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)

The USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) was an Essex -class aircraft carrier serving the United States Navy during the Second World War and Vietnam. She was commissioned in May 1944 under the command of Captain D. Kiefer.

Construction

Construction on Essex began in February 1943. Originally named Hancock, her designation was changed about three months into the building process. She entered the water a year and seven days later.

Ticonderoga was the first of the "long-hull" Essex-type carriers. These later hulls had an extra sixteen feet added to the bow for the placement of forward anti-aircraft guns. Although a few Essex-class carriers that had been started earlier were completed according to the short-hull design, most subsequent vessels had long hulls. Some Naval historians consider the Ticonderoga to be the lead ship of its own class for this reason.

Displacing 27,000 tons, Ticonderoga was 888 long and 147.5 feet wide as measured at her flight deck. Her engines included eight boilers manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox (now a subsidiary of German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG) and four geared steam turbines from Westinghouse.

In addition to 100 aircraft and their crews, she was manned by over 3400 officers and seamen.

Repairs and Upgrades

After shakedown trials in the Caribbean were completed in late July 1944, Ticonderoga underwent a month of repairs and alterations at Norfolk in preparation for her imminent deployment.

The carrier underwent a month of repairs at the Ulithi Naval Base after she sustained minor damage during Typhoon Cobra in December 1944. Ticonderoga entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington in mid-February 1945 for two months of repairs following a kamikaze attack in January.

In early November of that year, Ticonderoga underwent minor modifications for Operation Magic Carpet, the transport of veterans home from the former combat zones.

Ticonderoga underwent several modifications in 1952 at the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn. Known as an SCB-27 modernization, the upgrades included installation of steam catapults and a deck-edge elevator that would enable the vessel to handle the new jet aircraft. That work continued until September 1954.

Her next modifications took place as the Norfolk Naval Shipyard from August 1956 until early the following year. This was the SCB-125 modernization, which installed an enclosed "hurricane bow" and an angled flight deck – enabling the vessel to launch and recover aircraft simultaneously.

Ticonderoga entered the Hunter's Point Shipyard near San Francisco in January 1965, where she underwent five months of maintenance work between combat deployments to Vietnam.

During July and August of 1967, Ticonderoga entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for maintenance work. Following a Vietnam deployment the following year, she entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for repairs and upkeep.

Starting in October 1969, Ticonderoga underwent seven months of conversion work to convert her for anti submarine combat. Four years later, naval inspectors at San Diego determined her to be obsolete and unfit for further service.

Wartime Service

Ticonderoga served in the South Pacific with Task Force 38 from mid-October 1944 through the end of the conflict, returning to the States only once for repairs following a kamikaze attack.

After post-war mopping up and transport duties, Ticonderoga was laid up at the Bremerton Naval yard in January 1946, where she remained until 1952. In February of that year, she was transferred to the New York Naval yard for upgrades. She did not return to duty until September of 1954, however.

Initially based out of NB Norfolk, the Ticonderoga operated in the Caribbean, Atlantic and Mediterranean before her transfer to the West Coast in 1958.

In the years leading up to U.S. intervention in Vietnam, Ticonderoga made four routine deployments to the Pacific. After several combat deployments to Vietnam in the 1960s, Ticonderoga returned to California where she was decommissioned in September 1973. Her hulk was sold for scrap less than a year later.

Asbestos Risk on the USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)

In December 1944, Ticonderoga was caught in the South China Sea when Typhoon Cobra struck, resulting in minor structural damage. In January 1945, Ticonderoga was hit by two kamikaze attackers inside of two hours. One penetrated the flight deck, igniting several aircraft stowed on the hangar deck below in addition to stores of aviation fuel. A second plane struck her starboard hull just under the island, exacerbating the situation. In both of these instances, crewmen would have been exposed to high levels of asbestos contamination from damaged or burning asbestos.

Using asbestos insulation in the design of oceangoing vessels was ordered by law in the US in the early 1930s, after a fire at sea on a cruise ship resulted in enormous loss of life. When asbestos insulation becomes worn it can become "friable", meaning that individual asbestos fibers can be broken off and enter the surrounding air, allowing them to be inhaled or ingested by sailors or dockworkers, increasing the odds of developing mesothelioma.

Unfortunately, a mesothelioma prognosis is not usually optimistic; typically mesothelioma victims live for less than two years after diagnosis. To assist mesothelioma cancer victims in finding available treatment and care options, we have compiled a free Mesothelioma Treatment Guide with information about clinics, treatments, and drug trials. Just fill in the form on this page and we will send you the information, at no charge.

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).