USS Charger

"HMS Charger (D27)" redirects here. For other ships, see HMS Charger.

USS Charger CVE-30
History
United States
Name
  • Rio de la Plata (1941)
  • Charger (1941–47)
  • Fairsea (1947–69)
NamesakeRoyal Navy name retained
Ordered29 November 1939
BuilderSun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania
Cost$2,720,800 (1939 contract)
Yard number188
Laid down19 January 1940
Launched1 March 1941
Acquired1 August 1941 (delivery to Navy for conversion)
Commissioned3 March 1942
Decommissioned15 March 1946
Reclassified
  • D27 (R.N. pennant 1941)
  • AVG-30, 24 January 1942
  • ACV-30, 20 August 1942
  • CVE-30, 15 July 1943
Fate
  • Sold into merchant service, 30 January 1947
  • Sold for scrap, 1969
General characteristics
Class and typeCharger-class escort carrier
Displacement15,125 long tons (15,368 t)
Length492 ft (150 m)
Beam
  • 69 ft 6 in (21.18 m)
  • 111 ft 2 in (33.88 m) extreme width
Draft26 ft 3 in (8.00 m)
Speed17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Complement856 officers and enlisted
Armament
Aircraft carried30+

USS Charger (CVE-30) was an escort carrier of the United States Navy during World War II converted from a commercial C3-P&C cargo/passenger liner hull built as Rio de la Plata intended for the Moore-McCormack company's American Republics Line serving the east coast of South America.[note 1] The ship was requisitioned for conversion to an escort carrier type intended for Royal Navy use and initially commissioned as HMS Charger (D27). Days later the transfer was rescinded with the ship returning to U.S. Navy control to become USS Charger which operated throughout the war as a training ship on the Chesapeake Bay with two ferry missions to Bermuda and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

After decommissioning in March 1946 the ship was sold in January 1947 to become the Italian Fairsea engaged largely in refugee and immigrant voyages from Europe to Australia. After a disabling engine room fire in January 1969 the ship was sold for scrap in Italy.
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