Bogue-class escort carrier

The Bogue class was a group of 45 escort carriers built in the United States during the Second World War, based on the Maritime Commission's Type C3 cargo ship hull. Thirty-four of them went to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease, and the article recognises several subclasses: the eleven ships kept by the US Navy, the Attacker class and the Ruler or Ameer class. Seattle-Tacoma built every American ship and half of the British ones, while the remaining early British carriers were produced by Ingalls Shipbuilding at Pascagoula, Mississippi, and by Western Pipe and Steel in San Francisco. A ship could carry up to 24 aircraft, or up to 90 on ferry duty, and was driven by Foster Wheeler boilers feeding steam turbines on a single shaft at 18 knots. After the war the ships that stayed in American service were redesignated helicopter escort carriers and later used as aircraft ferries.