Hancock (CV 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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End of Patrol Combat Atfr Patrol Launched by Catapult TmM l

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SBQC S Overhead I 1 administrative jobs, he was ordered in 1941 to a new carrier, the now famous Wasp, as Executive Officer. Saved fr-om the torpedoed, burning Wasp as she went down in the Coral Sea, he was ordered to shore duty until his assign- mentas prospective commanding officer of the Hancock in February of 1944. Moving from the drydock to t-he West Jetty of the South Boston Navy Yard the Hancock received the finishing touches of her fitting-out period and by the last week of May was ready for her maiden voyage. Accompanied by three destroyers, on May 22, 1944, she laid a course for Norfolk, Virginia, to wind up her Atlantic training exercises before heading for the Pacific. Though the carrier was destined for the Pacific Fleet, submarines and mines still presented a menace off the East Coast and so, easing up Chesapeake Bay to Hampton Roads, Virginia, the big carrier entered the deperming station at Lambert's Point. Fresh from her builders' yards and constructed almost entirely of iron in its various carbon alloys she presented a strong attraction to the German-laid mine fields. Deperming, or demagnetizing,

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Pacific-Bozmcl Through Gatun Locks