USS Saratoga was a Lexington-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy’s first aircraft carriers during construction. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. She was one of three prewar US fleet aircraft carriers, along with Enterprise and Ranger, to serve throughout World War II.
About USS Saratoga (CV-3) in brief
USS Saratoga was a Lexington-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy’s first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. She was one of three prewar US fleet aircraft carriers, along with Enterprise and Ranger, to serve throughout World War II. After the war the ship was extensively redesigned to incorporate improved boiler technology, anti-torpedo bulges, and a general increase in armor protection based on British wartime experiences. She survived the first test with little damage, but was sunk by the second test in mid-1946. She is the fifth US Navy ship named after the 1777 Battle of Saratogia, an important victory during the Revolutionary War. In 1942 she was the centerpiece of the unsuccessful American effort to relieve Wake Island and was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine a few weeks later. In early 1945, she participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima as a dedicated night fighter carrier. While under repair, the ship, now increasingly obsolete, was permanently modified as a training carrier with some of her hangar deck converted into classrooms. By 1945, her crew totaled 3,373, including her aviation group including her flight deck’s 2,373 inches.
She had a standard displacement of 36,000 long tons, 43,055 at deep load. At that displacement, she had a metacentric height of 7,000 feet. Christoolittle, wife of Curtis D. Wilbur, Secretary of Navy, commissioned the ship on 16 April 1925, under the command of Captain Earnell Yarnell. She nicknamed her Sister Sara and later, Sara Maru, by her crew of 100 officers and 1,840 enlisted men, totaling 141 officers and an aviation group totaling 710 men and 141 officers. In November 1927, she became the first US Navy aircraft carrier to be named after a woman, the first woman to serve as a captain in the U.S. Navy, and the first female captain of a US Navy vessel. She served in the Pacific until the end of the war in 1945. She has been named after one of two women who served as captains in the US Navy: Olive Dricric Doolittle and Olive Curtis Wilbur. She died in a fire aboard the aircraft carrier in August 1945, and was buried in a New Jersey cemetery in September 1945. Her name was changed to “Saratoga” in honor of the woman who died in the battle of Sarotoga in 1777. The name “Saratoga” was also used by her sister ship, “Sara Maru” in the Second World War, which was also named for a woman who served on the USS Saratagas. She also served as the name of one of her crew members, the Captain Harry E. Yarnall.
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