#uss jupiter

USS LANGLEY (CV-1) under reconstruction from the collier, USS JUPITER (AC-3), at Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia. She was the first US Navy ship built with turbo electric transmission propulsion. This system used steam to power a turbine connected to an electrical generator, to power the propeller motors and everything else on the ship. This allowed for greater fuel efficiency and had greater redundancies.

Note: boat storage yard ashore, and USS GEORGE E. BADGER (DD-196) in background.

Date: late 1921

The ill-fated Proteus-class colliers. USS Proteus (AC-9) was the lead ship of her class. She disappeared in November 1941. USS Jupiter (AC-3) was converted to the aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1) in 1920 and later to a seaplane tender (AV-3) in 1937. She was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in February 1942. USS Cyclops (AC-4) disappeared in March 1918 after a mutiny. USS Nereus (AC-10) disappeared in December 1941.

The Three Lives of America’s First Aircraft Carrier

Top: USS Jupiter, Langley's first life as USS Jupiter (AC-3) a Collier who helped kept the coal-dependent pre-WWI Navy running.

Middle: USS Langley (CV-1), America’s first Aircraft Carrier, where many of the kinks of naval aviation were worked out through much trial and error.