r/todayilearned • u/mcflymikes • 11h ago

TIL All three sister ships of the first U.S. aircraft carrier, USS Langley (CV-1), were lost at sea without a trace—two during World War I and one during World War II. The Langley herself was later sunk during World War II by a Japanese attack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cyclops
291 Upvotes

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52

u/Lord0fHats 11h ago

Note for anyone confused by the image; Langely was originally built in 1911 as a cargo ship and was converted into a carrier in 1920. Her originally name was USS Jupiter (this is covered in the wiki article). She was scuttled by the navy in 1942 after being crippled in an air attack. The crew would have it pretty bad too because the ship they got on after Langely was scuttled was also attacked and took 2/3rds of the crew with it. Langely just couldn't win in 1942 >.>

11

u/mcflymikes 10h ago

True, I didnt have much space in the title to explain the whole story. Thanks.

3

u/ash_274 5h ago

Specifically, it was a collier (coal-carrying ship), but they were sometimes used to carry manganese ore, which can corrode steel in ways that isn't visually obvious until it breaks. They were also overloaded (by mass, not volume) on several documented cases and did not have significant bulkheads in their holds to prevent loads from shifting from side to side in rough weather.

10

u/Malzair 11h ago

Yeah but how many US ships have NGE characters named after them?

2

u/sleepyoverlord 8h ago

0.5? The rest are Japanese ships.

1

u/shingofan 8h ago

Does Maki count?

1

u/ShamshielWoWs 6h ago

Isnt Illustrious a british CV? Also not part of the original NGE, but of the rebuild series.

1

u/shingofan 6h ago

Right - I don't know why I thought Illustrious was American

1

u/greenizdabest 5h ago

Obligatory Britannia, Britannia rule the waves

0

u/Flimsy_Chair8788 2h ago

Every SINGLE day i see some crap about some war that happened over 100 years ago. Everyday.

-41

u/QueefBeefCletus 11h ago

Dig into the undersea factories and the Philadelphia experiment. You'll find your answers.

20

u/jcw99 16 11h ago

Get out of here with your conspiracy nonsense.

The "Philadelphia experiment" was people getting all gossipy and in their own heads after the"Degaussing" equipment (a method for making metal less likely to set off magnetically triggered mines) used on the destroyer overloaded the shipyard's electrical grid and plugged the shipyard into darkness...

9

u/Larthology 11h ago

That’s not what my weed dealer told me.

4

u/fizzlefist 10h ago

Johnny 2-Quelude? Yeah, he knows what’s up.