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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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Photo # 80-G-262768:  USS Cabot at sea, 26 July 1945

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Cabot (CVL-28, later AVT-3), 1943-1967

USS Cabot, a 11,000-ton Independence class small aircraft carrier, was built at Camden, New Jersey. Converted while under construction from the light cruiser Wilmington (CL-79), she was commissioned in July 1943. Early in 1944, Cabot arrived in the Pacific war zone and immediately became part of the Pacific Fleet's fast carrier striking force. She participated in all the Fleet's major carrier actions from then until the end of World War II, notably including the Marshalls Operation, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, raids on the Philippines and other Pacific islands, the Iwo Jima Operation, carrier strikes on Japan and the Okinawa Campaign. She was damaged by Japanese Kamikazes on 25 November 1944, but remained in operation despite casualties to her crew and structure.

Following Japan's capitulation in August 1945, Cabot supported occupation efforts and then returned to the United States in November. She was decommissioned in February 1947, but returned to active service in October 1948 as a Naval Air Reserve training carrier. During the early 1950s, Cabot deployed once to European waters and received modernization to fit her for the anti-submarine support role. Decommissioned in January 1955, she was reclassified as an aircraft transport and redesignated AVT-3 in May 1959.

In 1967, after over twelve years in "mothballs", Cabot was loaned to Spain, in whose navy she served as Dedalo. The loan was converted to a sale in 1972. Dedalo was stricken by the Spanish Navy in August 1989 and given to a private organization in the U.S. for use as a museum ship. However, during the subsequent decade plans to memorialize Cabot/Dedalo met with no success, and the now much deteriorated ship was sold for scrapping in 1997. After the failure of a lengthy legal effort to preserve the old carrier, she was cut up at Brownsville, Texas, beginning in November 2000.

This page features our only views of USS Cabot (CVL-28).

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 45507

USS Cabot (CVL-28)


Off the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, on 27 August 1943.

Bureau of Ships Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 73KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-262768

USS Cabot (CVL-28)


Underway at sea, 26 July 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 112KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-289608

USS Cabot (CVL-28)


Is hit by a Kamikaze, while operating with Task Force 38 off Luzon, 25 November 1944.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-263253 (Cropped)

USS Cabot (CVL-28)

Closeup view of the ship's port side bridge wing, showing her insignia, circa 1943-44.
The design is based on the slogan of Cabot's first Commanding Officer, Captain Malcolm F. Schoeffel: "Up Mohawks, At 'Em!". "Mohawk" was the ship's voice radio call sign at the time.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 106KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 96958

USS Cabot (CVL-28)


Flies a long "Homeward Bound" pennant as she departs the Western Pacific for overhaul in San Francisco, California, 13 April 1945. She had been operating in the combat zone since January 1944.
View looks aft from the ship's island, with her SK-1 radar antennna at left and other shipping in the distance. Aircraft on Cabot's deck include (from right front): OS2U, SOC, TBM, SB2C, F4U and F6F types.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 7 September 1999
Text updated and link added 27 October 2001