They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years — 3 November through to 8 July Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier.
It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Bogue class. Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat.
The Vancouver yard was expressly built in to construct Liberty ships , but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3,foot m outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships.
Their relatively small size and mass-production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection.
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska , though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles.
