May 2011 - Navy
By Norman Polmar
The antecedent of today’s 100,000-ton, nuclearpropelled
super carriers was USS Langley––the
CV No. 1. Built almost a century ago as the
collier USS Jupiter (AC 3), Langley began life as a
lowly auxiliary, carrying coal for battleships and other
ships of the fleet.
Jupiter was no stranger to “firsts.” When commissioned
in 1913, she was the Navy’s first large ship with electric
propulsion, and in 1914, she was the first ship to pass
through the Panama Canal going from west to east.1
Along with the collier USS Neptune (AC 8), Jupiter got
into the aviation business in June 1917 when she brought
the plane-less First Aeronautic Detachment to France––the
first naval aviation unit to go overseas.
World War I was the proving ground for naval aviation.
American and British land-based naval aircraft played a
significant role, and the British also employed ship-based
aircraft. In light of this experience, the U.S. Congress
passed the 1919 Naval Appropriations Act, with a provision
for up to $500,000 for the conversion of a collier to
an aircraft carrier for temporary fleet operations and
experiments. Jupiter was named for conversion.
Jupiter was comparable in size to the battleships of the
time (with an overall length of 542 feet and a full-load
displacement of 19,360 tons) but slow (having logged
14.99 knots on her trials). The ship’s holds were large with
high head room and large hatches. Those factors allowed
for the stowing of a relatively large number of aircraft and
space for machine shops. In addition, her manning
requirements were small when compared to other ships
that might have been converted.
In March 1920, Jupiter entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for
conversion. Her coal-handling gear was removed and a
flight deck 534-feet long and 64-feet wide was installed.
The girder-supported flight deck was installed over the
holds and the ship’s bridge. Traveling cranes were provided
beneath the flight deck to hoist aircraft from the ship’s
holds and to transfer them forward and aft along the
main (open) deck; a single elevator could then lift aircraft
to the flight deck. Two jib cranes were fitted to the main
deck to handle seaplanes over the side, while two 145-foot
catapults were mounted forward.
The flight deck––installed approximately 30-feet above
the main deck––led some onlookers to compare the ship to
a prairie schooner of the American West, leading to the
ship’s nickname “Covered Wagon.”2
A short smoke stack was initially installed on each side of
the ship and interconnected so that exhaust gases could
be discharged from either side, depending on the wind
direction. The ship was later given a fixed funnel on her
port side and still later two port-side funnels that hinged
outward during flight operations. The ship retained her
original electric-drive propulsion system and as a carrier
was rated at an “estimated” speed of 15 knots. In reality, she
was a knot or two slower, making this first carrier too slow
to keep up with the battleships, which had a maximum
speed of 21 knots.
In her original configuration, Langley had an elaborate
pigeon house on the stern with bird food storage, nesting,
training, and trapping areas. The radios of the day were
rudimentary, and most cross-country aircraft flights carried
homing pigeons in case of emergency. One pilot recalled,
“The attempt to train pigeons to return to a ship was a
great failure, but provided an excellent supply of squab for
the mess.”3 The pigeon space was soon rebuilt into the executive
officer’s quarters.
Jupiter was re-commissioned as USS Langley on 20 March
1922, being named for astronomer and physicist Samuel
Pierpoint Langley, who had experimented with flying
machines as early as 1898. At the time, he was incorrectly
credited by the Smithsonian Institution with having developed
the first practical powered aircraft.
Langley’s conversion was completed in September 1922.
On 17 October, while she was anchored in Virginia’s York
River, Lt. Cdr. Virgil C. Griffin made the first takeoff from
her deck, flying a Vought VE-7SF biplane. Langley’s aviator
Jackson Tate re-called,
“This was not so
simple as it sounds
today...planes in those
days had no brakes. In
order to allow a plane
to turn up to full
power and start its
deck run, it was necessary
to develop a
device consisting of a
bomb release attached
to a wire about 5-feet
long. The bomb release
was hooked to a ring
on the landing gear
and the end of the wire
to a hold-down fitting
on the deck. A cord led from the bomb-release trigger
to an operator on the deck, who could release the plane
on signal.”4
Nine days later, on 26 October, while Langley was
steaming at 12.5 knots, Lt. Cdr. Chevalier made the first
landing on her deck with an Aeromarine 39-B biplane. As
the plane settled down on the deck, its wood propeller
broke, but there was no crash. At the time, the ship’s arresting
gear consisted of wires running fore and aft, suspended
about 10 inches above the deck and covering the after 200
feet of the flight deck. Comb-like devices on the planes’
landing gear slowed the aircraft as they glided along the
wires, which converged as they ran forward. While not
entirely successful, this system of fore-and-aft wires was
used on U.S. aircraft carriers until 1929. Langley was also fitted
with a flush-deck catapult forward for launching heavy
aircraft, or when there was no wind over her deck.
After operating for two years in an experimental role
testing aircraft and carrier equipment, training pilots, and
developing operating techniques, on 29 November 1924,
Langley joined the Battle Fleet at San Diego, Calif. Fighting
Squadron (VF) 2 (flying VE-7S fighters) began flying from
Langley in January 1925 for carrier qualifications, becoming
the first squadron to be assigned to a U.S. carrier. In
March 1925, Langley took part in her first exercise, Fleet
Problem V off the West Coast. The nine fighters of VF-2
had little influence on the outcome of the exercise, but
Langley’s participation demonstrated the feasibility of
operating a slow carrier with the fleet. As a result, the
Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet, Adm. Robert E. Coontz,
recommended accelerating the completion of the Navy’s
next two carriers, USS Lexington (CV 2) and USS Saratoga
(CV 3). During her first year with the Battle Fleet,
Langley normally carried only one 12-plane squadron,
which could be accommodated in her hangar, plus a
few planes assigned to the ship. In October 1925,
Capt. Joseph M. Reeves,
the newly appointed
Commander Aircraft
Squadrons, Battle Fleet,
came aboard Langley.
Capt. Reeves soon
increased the number of
planes embarked in the
ship as he sought to fill
every square foot of deck
space with aircraft.
Through his efforts the
ship eventually was able
to embark and operate
42 aircraft.
During operations off
Oahu in April-May 1928
(Fleet Problem VIII),
fighters, which had in-line, watercooled engines. Langley
was able to launch 35 aircraft in just seven minutes––or
one plane every 12 seconds. These operations included an
early morning “attack” with simulated bombing and strafing
runs, taking the Army defenders by complete surprise.
This was the first of a series of such exercises in which U.S.
carriers were invariably successful in making surprise
attacks on Oahu.
Langley became a regular feature of those fleet exercises,
joining in with Lexington, Saratoga, and Ranger (CV 4). With
three new carriers in the fleet, and others under construction,
Langley was converted to a seaplane tender (AV 3) at
Mare Island from October 1936 to February 1937. In the
conversion, she lost the forward 40 percent of her flight
deck and gained a small superstructure in its place; in her new
configuration she could provide services to two squadrons
of patrol planes. As a seaplane tender, she operated in both
the Pacific and Atlantic areas until she sailed westward,
arriving at Manila in the Philippines on 24 September
1939, to support the Asiatic Fleet’s seaplanes.
When Japan attacked the Philippines on 8 December
1941, Langley was at Sangley Point, near Manila. She got
under way the night of 8-9 December for Balikpapan,
Borneo, and then Darwin, Australia. Arriving in Australia
on 1 January 1942, she provided support to the Royal
Australian Air Force which was flying antisubmarine
patrols out of Darwin.
In late February 1942, the Japanese steamroller smashed
into Java in the Netherlands East Indies. The only hope the
Allies had of holding the prized island was to send aircraft
to combat the pressing Japanese. U.S. Army P-40 fighters,
the mainstay of Allied air forces in the area, did not have
the range to fly the 1,000 miles from bases in Australia to
Java, and had to refuel en route at Timor Island. Realizing
this, on 20 February, the Japanese landed troops on Timor.
The Allied high command decided to send fighters to
Java by sea, and Langley was assigned to this desperate
mission. At Freemantle, Australia, 32 P-40E Warhawks were
loaded on Langley’s chopped-off flight deck and in the
open space aft of the bridge on the main deck. Thirty-three
Army officer pilots and 12 enlisted mechanics came
aboard. The pilots, with one exception, had little or no previous
experience in P-40s. The aircraft were put aboard
Langley unfueled but with their guns loaded.
Twenty-seven more P-40 fighters, these in crates, were
loaded in the American-flag freighter Sea Witch. In convoy
with other ships, the two departed Freemantle on
Australia’s west coast on 22 February. The need for fighter
aircraft in Java was so pressing that Langley and Sea Witch
broke away from the convoy and steamed separately––
unescorted––for Tjilatjap, Java’s only port where the ships
could deliver their cargo with some degree of safety.
Steaming at full speed at about 14 knots, Langley was
expected to arrive at the port on the morning of 27
February.5 Langley was delayed on 26 February, however,
because of a mix-up over which ships would escort her on
the final leg of the voyage. Two U.S. destroyers eventually
met Langley, but there was another delay while a suspected
submarine contact was run down. Early on 27 February,
Langley and her escorts began the final 100-mile run to
Tjilatjap.
She would never make port. About 0900 on 27
February, an unidentified plane was sighted high above
the three ships. Fighter cover was requested by Langley, but
no fighters could be spared by the hard-pressed Army
squadrons on Java. At 1140 more aircraft were sighted and
battle stations sounded. Langley’s anti-aircraft guns pointed
skyward as did those of her escorts, USS Whipple (DD 217)
and USS Edsall (DD 219), each with a 3-inch antiaircraft
gun and several machine guns.
At the time, Langley was armed with four 3-inch antiaircraft
guns, which had been mounted on her flight deck in
1941. The guns were directed from an exposed fire control
center on her flight deck, somewhat protected by sandbags.
The ship also had four .50-caliber, water-cooled
machine guns and a few automatic rifles for air defense.
Langley’s main battery of two 5-inch/51-caliber guns
mounted forward and two more aft, which survived from
her configuration as a carrier, could not be used against
aircraft.
Attacking first were nine Japanese twin-engine bombers.
Their first two passes were foiled by the expert maneuvering
of Langley’s skipper, Cdr. Robert P. McConnell. The third
time, the Japanese pilots anticipated the ship’s maneuvering
and Langley was struck by five direct hits and two near
misses.
The 29-year-old ship reeled under the blows. The planes
on her abbreviated flight deck burst into flames, which
were being fanned by a stiff wind; the bridge steering
mechanism and gyro compass were destroyed; and there
was soon a 10-degree list to starboard. As Langley staggered
along, six Zeros strafed the flaming ship.
Despite the chaos, McConnell made a gallant attempt to
save his stricken ship. Burning planes were pushed over the
side, counterflooding was ordered to reduce the list, and
Langley was steered toward the Java coast in the hope that
she could be run aground to save what planes remained.
But the ship’s electric propulsion flooded and she came to
a halt. At 1332, McConnell ordered his ship abandoned
while the two destroyers made ready to take off his crew.
All but 11 of the crew and the embarked Army aviation
personnel were rescued. When only the dead were left in
Langley one of the destroyers sank her with two torpedoes
and nine rounds of 4-inch gunfire. Langley went
down 74 miles from Java.
Many of the survivors, however, died when Japanese
forces sank Edsall a few days later. Sea Witch and her cargo
of aircraft arrived safely at Tjilatjap on the morning of 28
February; she returned to Australia undetected by the
Japanese. Tjilatjap itself was occupied by the Japanese on 8
March, and the next day Java surrendered. The ill-fated
Allied attempt to save Java had cost the lives of many
Allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and the loss of many
ships––among them the notable USS Langley.
(Endnotes)
1 Jupiter was built at the Mare Island (Calif.) Navy Yard, and launched on
24 August 1912. Her three sister ships all disappeared under mysterious circumstances:
Cyclops (AC 4) in 1918 (cause unknown), and Nereus (AC 10)
and Proteus (AC 9) in 1941 (both presumed sunk by German U-boats).
2 See Lt. j.g. H. B. Miller, USN, “Covered Wagons of the Sea,” U.S. Naval
Institute Proceedings (November 1931), p. 1468. Another hypothesis was
Langley’s position aft of the battleships in formation, like the cook wagon in
the Old West; see Hill Goodspeed and Tom Wildenberg, “Another Milestone
for Carrier Aviation,” Naval Aviation News, May/June 2000, p. 38.
3 Rear Adm. Jackson R. Tate, USN (Ret.), “We Rode the Covered Wagon,”
U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (October 1978), p. 64.
4 Tate, p. 66.
5 Langley’s final voyage and loss are described in Dwight R. Messimer,
Pawns of War: The Loss of the USS Langley and the USS Pecos (Annapolis,
Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1983).
Mr. Norman Polmar is a naval analyst, author, and consultant. Among
his 50 published books is the two-volume Aircraft Carriers: A History of
Carrier Aviation and Its Impact on World Events (Dulles, VA: Potomac
Books, 2006 and 2008).