As built they were intended for three types of operations, "Assault" or strike, convoy escort, or aircraft ferry.[3]
After the Second World War some of the escort carriers were scrapped, while others had their flight decks removed and were converted to merchant ships (and all eventually scrapped by the 1970s).
Design and description
These ships were all larger and had greater aircraft capacity than all preceding American built escort carriers. They were laid down as escort carriers and were not converted merchant ships.[4] All the ships had a complement of 646 men and an overall length of 492 feet 3 inches (150.0 m), a beam of 69 feet 6 inches (21.2 m) and a draught of 25 ft 6 in (7.8 m).[4]Propulsion was provided by one shaft, two boilers and a steam turbine giving 9,350 shaft horsepower (6,970 kW), which could propel the ship at 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph).[5]
^Gordon Smith (ed.), "US-built escort aircraft carriers", Lt Cmdr G Mason - His Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2 and Other Researches, naval-history.net