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Essex Class



Specifications: (USS Essex-original design)
Displacement: 35,438 tonnes (34,880 tons)
Length: 265.7m (871 ft 9 in)
Beam: 29.2m (96 ft)
Height: 8.3m (27 ft 6 in)
Propulsion: Quadruple screw turbines
Speed: 32.7 knots
Armament: twelve 12.7 cm (5 in) guns
Crew: 2687
Aircraft: 91
Vessels of Class: 26
The Essex class of Fast Fleet Carriers, was a design based on the successful Yorktown Class of Fleet Carriers, which at the time of the first carrier of the class being commissioned- USS Essex CV-9, had all but disappeared baring the Enterprise, which the class was designed on.
Once the first series of Essex class ships had left the slip ways, they quickly became the largest carrier class of the time, not even the modern Nimitz class consist of as many vessels, the number of Essex's built from CV-9 (Essex) to CV-45 (Valley Forge) was 26 the largest class of capital ships ever built.

The Essex class was an impressive class, and proved invaluable in the closing months of the war.
The Class consisted of:
USS Essex CV-9
USS Yorktown CV-10
USS Intrepid CV-11
USS Hornet CV-12
USS Franklin CV-13
USS Ticonderoga CV-14
USS Randolph CV-15
USS Lexington CV-16
USS Bunker Hill CV-17
USS Wasp CV-18
USS Hancock CV-19
USS Bennington CV-20
USS Boxer CV-21
USS Bon Homme Richard CV-31
USS Leyte CV-32
USS Kearsarge CV-33
USS Oriskany CV-34
USS Antietam CV-36
USS Princeton CV-37
USS Shangri-La CV-38
USS Lake Champlain CV-39
USS Tarawa CV-40
USS Valley Forge CV-45
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