The U.S. Navy’s first “jeep carrier,” the Long Island, underwent several changes in type designation as the escort carrier concept evolved during World War II. Laid down for the Maritime Commission in July 1939, the ship was launched as the C3-S-A1 freighter Mormacmail on 11 January 1940; was taken over by the Navy as AVG-1 (aircraft tender, general- purpose) on 6 March; and was commissioned on 2 June 1941 after conversion to act as an aircraft carrier originally intended to operate a biplane air group of six SBC Helldiver scouts and ten SOC Seagull observation aircraft. The initial 362-foot by 70-foot, 10-inch, flight deck was extended forward some 77 feet after the ship’s redesignation as ACV-1 (auxiliary aircraft carrier) on 20 August 1941- Finally, the 492-foot, 13,499-ton ship was redesignated, along with all later escort carriers, as Aircraft Carrier, Escort, CVE- 1 on 15 July 1943. The original flight deck configuration had incorporated a short catapult angled 30° off centerline to port, and the new, longer deck had a longer catapult on the port side, running parallel to the flight deck. The Long Island was unique among the CVEs in never receiving an island structure; the bridge was retained beneath the flight deck. The tiny 98-foot by 54-foot hangar aft was served by a single elevator. The ship could reach 16.5 knots on the 7,965 horsepower provided by the single Busch-Sulzer diesel.
After trials and modifications, the Long Island escorted an East Coast convoy to Newfoundland after the Pearl Harbor attack and then went to the Pacific. On arriving at Pearl Harbor, she was attached to a four-battleship force sent to support forces retiring from the victorious Battle of Midway and then returned to the West Coast to provide pilot training services. In August 1942, the ship ferried Marine Corps aircraft to the South Pacific, launching them when within 200 miles of Guadalcanal, where they became the first aircraft to land at hard-won Henderson Field. The rest of the Long Island’s war was more prosaic: through 1943, she operated from San Diego, providing further pilot training services. In February 1944, the ship emerged from a refit at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard re configured as a pure aircraft transport, with the arrester gear removed and the flight deck plating replaced with thinner steel so that up to 250 tons of aircraft could be stowed there; another 100 tons could be accommodated in the hangar. The Long Island was decommissioned on 26 March 1946 and sold for merchant service after being stricken the following month. In 1949, she began immigrant transport service between Europe and Canada as the Nelly and then served from 1953 to 1966 as a mobile schoolship before becoming a floating dormitory for the University of Rotterdam.
The Long Island in August 1941, after completion of the flight deck extension and with four 20-mm antiaircraft guns replacing the original four .50-caliber machine guns. Two 3-inch guns were retained on the forecastle throughout the war, but the 5-inch/51-caliber low-angle weapon seen here at the stem was re placed with a dual-purpose 38-caliber weapon in November 1942, when the number of single 20-mm mounts was increased to the final 20. Visible on deck are seven SOC Seagull observation biplanes and a single F2A Buffalo fighter.
The Long Island in 1942 at the time of her active service in the South Pacific, with Marine Corps SBD Dauntless scout-bombers on deck. The significance of the spurious “751” hull number is not known.
After February 1944, the Long Island no longer could land aircraft aboard, but the catapult was retained so that aircraft being ferried could be flown off. Visible in this June 1944 view are 20 TBF/TBM Avenger torpedo bombers forward, 20 SBD Dauntless scout-bombers (with nonfolding wings) aft, and a single JF Duck biplane amphibian to starboard at the extreme aft end of the flight deck.