Description

During World War II the United States built three types of aircraft carriers: the Essex class heavy carriers, the Independence class light carriers, and ‘escort’ carriers. The 24 ships of the Essex class were not remarkable for any great design innovation, but essentially for being in the right place at the right time and for doing well the task history gave them. The Essex class carriers served in numbers too large and too late in the war to gain the fame of the pre-war carriers whose names they frequently bore, but they served longer than any other class and through wars never dreamed of by their builders. Those that survive as museum ships today are a fitting tribute to the class that ruled the Pacific fifty years ago.