USS Saidor (CVE 117)

- formerly SALTERY BAY -
- later CVHE 117, later AKV 17 -
- decommissioned -

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USS SAIDOR was one of the COMMENCEMENT BAY escort carriers and the first ship in the Navy named after the coastal town on northeast New Guinea, possessing a good harbor, occupied by Allied troops on 2 January 1944. Decommissioned on September 12, 1947, the SAIDOR was sold for scrapping on October 22, 1971.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: 1943
	Keel laid: September 29, 1944
	Launched: March 17, 1945
	Commissioned: September 4, 1945
	Decommissioned: September 12, 1947
	Builder: Todd-Pacific Shipyards, Tacoma, Wash., and completed at Commercial Iron Works, Portland, Or.
	Propulsion system: four boilers, geared turbines
	Propellers: two
	Length: 557 feet (170 meters)
	Flight Deck Width: 105.3 feet (32.1 meters)
	Beam: 75 feet (23 meters)
	Draft: 30.8 feet (9.35 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 24,250 tons full load
	Speed: 19 knots
	Catapults: two
	Aircraft: 34 planes
	Armament: two 5-inch L/38 gun, 36 40mm guns, 20 20mm guns
	Crew: 1066

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS SAIDOR. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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Click here to see which USS SAIDOR memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS SAIDOR Cruise Books:

Cruise Book 1945-47

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History of USS SAIDOR:

SALTERY BAY, renamed SAIDOR on 5 June 1944, was laid down on 29 September 1944 by Todd-Pacific Shipyards, Inc., Tacoma, Wash.; launched on 17 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Walter F. Boone; and commissioned on 4 September 1945, Capt. A. P. Storrs in command.

Following shakedown off the United States west coast, she served at Pearl Harbor from 12 December 1945 to 20 March 1946. Sailing via the Panama Canal, she operated at Norfolk, Va., from 16 to 22 April, before returning via the Panama Canal to the west coast. Departing San Diego on 6 May, SAIDOR arrived at Bikini on the 24th to serve as a photographic laboratory for the atomic bomb testing program, Operation "Crossroads." She processed film, documenting the destructive power of atomic weapons on selected targets at various ranges, during the nuclear explosions of 1 and 25 July. She departed Bikini on 4 August and returned to San Diego where she remained into 1947, when she began inactivation.

SAIDOR was decommissioned on 12 September 1947 and berthed with the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego. Reclassified CVHE 117 on 12 June 1955, and AKV 17 on 7 May 1959, she remained in the Reserve Fleet until 1 December 1970 when she was struck from the Navy list. She was sold to American Ship Dismantlers, Portland, Oreg., for scrapping on 22 October 1971.

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USS SAIDOR Image Gallery:

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