USS Ranger (CV-4)

USS Ranger (CV-4) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier of the 1930s and the only ship of her class, built by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. She was the first American vessel designed from the keel up as a carrier rather than converted from another hull, and the Washington Naval Treaty shaped her: with only 69,000 tons of the carrier allowance left, the Navy planned small hulls of about 13,800 tons, and Ranger grew to about 14,500 tons when a small island superstructure was added late in construction. Her keel was laid in September 1931, she was launched on 25 February 1933 and she was commissioned in June 1934. She was 730 feet long and could operate an air group of about 75 aircraft, but her seakeeping was poor and she was judged too slow for the Pacific carrier task forces, so she spent most of World War II in the Atlantic. There she ferried Army fighters to Africa, supported the Operation Torch landings in November 1942 and in October 1943 attacked German shipping off Norway. She was sold for scrap in 1947.