Spacecraft Recovery
27 December 1968: Apollo 8
General Characteristics:
Awarded: 1940
Keel laid: December 1, 1941
Launched: January 21, 1943
Commissioned: April 15, 1943
Decommissioned: June 27, 1970
Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Va.
Propulsion system: 8 boilers
Propellers: four
Aircraft elevators: three
Arresting gear cables: four
Catapults: two
Length: 876 feet (267 meters)
Flight Deck Width: 191.9 feet (58.5 meters)
Beam: 101 feet (30.8 meters)
Draft: 30.8 feet (9.4 meters)
Displacement: approx. 40,600 tons full load
Speed: 33 knots
Planes: 80-100 planes
Crew: approx. 3448 as CVS: 115 officers 1500 enlisted
Armament:
1943: 12 5-inch (12.7 cm) 38 caliber guns, 40 40mm guns and 55 20mm guns
1944: 12 5-inch (12.7 cm) 38 caliber guns, 64 40mm guns and 56 20mm guns
1954: 8 5-inch (12.7 cm) 38 caliber guns and 14 3-inch (7.6 cm) 50 caliber guns
1974: 4 5-inch (12.7 cm) 38 caliber guns
The USS Yorktown (ex CV-10 and CVA-10) was originally to be named Bon Homme Richard, changed to Benjamin Franklin, and finally changed to Yorkton in tribute to the USS Yorktown (CV-5) lost at the Battle of Midway on 7 June 1942.
More information on the USS Yorktown from the United States Navy.
The USS Yorktown is now a museum ship at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum on Charleston Harbor, Mount Pleasant, SC.
