Collier After successfully passing her
sea trial Jupiter embarked a
United States Marine Corps detachment at
San Francisco, California, and reported to the
Pacific Fleet at
Mazatlán, Mexico, on 27 April 1914, bolstering US naval strength on the Mexican Pacific coast in the tense days of the
Veracruz crisis. She remained on the Pacific coast until she departed for
Philadelphia, on 10 October.
En route, the collier steamed through the
Panama Canal on
Columbus Day, the first vessel to transit it from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It was the first US aviation detachment to arrive in Europe and was commanded by
Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting, who became
Langley first executive officer five years later. As the first American aircraft carrier,
Langley was the scene of several seminal events in US naval aviation. On 17 October 1922, Lt. Virgil C. Griffin piloted the first plane—a
Vought VE-7—launched from her full-length wooden deck. Though this was not the first time an airplane had taken off from a ship, and though
Langley was not the first ship with an installed flight deck, this one launching was of monumental importance to the modern US Navy. An unusual feature of
Langley was provision for a
carrier pigeon house on the stern between the
5-inch guns. Pigeons had been carried aboard
seaplanes for message transport since World War I, and were to be carried on aircraft operated from
Langley. As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole flock was released while
Langley was anchored off
Tangier Island, the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard. In 1924,
Langley participated in more maneuvers and exhibitions, and spent the summer at Norfolk for repairs and alterations, she departed for the West Coast late in the year and arrived in
San Diego, California, on 29 November to join the Pacific Battle Fleet. For the next 12 years, she operated off the
California coast and
Hawaii, engaged in training fleet units, experimentation, pilot training, and tactical-fleet problems. File:USS Langley (CV-1) being converted to an aircraft carrier at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, 14 May 1921 (NNAM.1996.488.010.002).jpg|
Langley being converted to an aircraft carrier at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, 1921 File:USS Langley (CV-1), USS Saratoga (CV-3) and USS Lexington (CV-2) docked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, circa 1930 (NH 95037).jpg|
Langley at
Puget Sound Navy Yard, immediately opposite (with black stripe on funnel) and in 1929
Seaplane tender On 25 October 1936, she put into
Mare Island Navy Yard, California for overhaul and conversion to a
seaplane tender. Though her career as a carrier had ended, her well-trained pilots had proved invaluable to the next two carriers,
Lexington and
Saratoga On 8 December, following the
invasion of the Philippines by Japan, she departed Cavite for
Balikpapan in the
Dutch East Indies. In the natural state of alarm (the
attack on Pearl Harbor had happened the day before) 300 rounds were shot at an object in the sky before it was realized that it was the planet
Venus. As the Japanese advance continued,
Langley proceeded to Australia, arriving in
Darwin on 1 January 1942. MS.5 departed Fremantle at noon on 22 February. Unfortunately the RNN (Helfrich) and USN (Glassford) had not communicated successfully about her escort arrangements, and the resulting confusion would doom the tender. Late on 26 February
Langley was informed that a Dutch patrol plane would meet her and direct her to a Dutch "destroyer" (actually a minelayer) named
Willem van der Zaan which would act as her escort. Another plane was to be overhead on the next day (27 February) as well. As it turned out,
Willem van der Zaan was suffering from boiler problems and incapable of more than 10 knots--slower than
Langley--so the tender's skipper (CDR McConnell) decided to proceed alone at 13 knots toward Tjilatjap, Java. It was hoped she could get to the island under the cover of darkness, as her slow speed and lack of escort made her extremely vulnerable to enemy air or submarine units. In the early hours of 27 February,
Langley rendezvoused with the
destroyers and , which had been sent from Tjilatjap to escort her. After being transferred to the
oiler , many of
Langleys crew were lost when
Pecos was sunk en route to Australia by Japanese carrier aircraft. Out of over 630 total crewmen and
Langley survivors on
Pecos, 232 were rescued while more than 400 were left behind and died due to Japanese submarines in the area hindering rescue efforts. Exact casualty numbers for the doomed ships of the
United States Asiatic Fleet and
American-British-Dutch-Australian Command are impossible to gather because so many Allied warships were sunk in the
Dutch East Indies campaign (at least 24 total) and many of those ships had already picked up survivors of other sunken ships and then were also sunk by the Japanese hours or days later. Thirty-one of the thirty-three pilots assigned to the USAAF 13th Pursuit Squadron (Provisional) being transported by
Langley remained on
Edsall to be brought to Tjilatjap, but were lost when she was sunk on the same day by Japanese warships while responding to the distress calls of
Pecos. ==Awards and decorations==