Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Fanshaw Bay

Back to Fanshaw Bay

ClassCasablanca class
TypeEscort carrier (CVE)
HullCVE-70
FateAfloat. Sprague's flagship off Samar. Hit and not sunk. Survived the war.
Armament (class)Escort carrier. Flight deck over a merchant hull, small island set aft, one 5-inch gun.
Command

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

The armament line is the class drawing, not a measurement of this hull.

Fanshaw Bay
U.S. Navy photo NH 106573. Fanshaw Bay on 17 January 1944, carrying aircraft as cargo. Public domain.

Fanshaw Bay was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, CVE-70, one of the small carriers built in numbers on the West Coast. Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague flew his flag in her. She was the lead ship of Taffy 3.

On the morning of 25 October 1944 Kurita's center force came out of the squall to the north: four battleships, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and eleven destroyers. Sprague had six escort carriers and seven ships in the screen. Fanshaw Bay was hit. She was not sunk. The planes from the carriers, and from Taffy 2 farther south, attacked the Japanese ships. Those attacks are not credited to one carrier.

She survived the war.

The pictures on this page are the originals.