Clark County History: USS Casablanca By Martin Middlewood, for The Columbian
Published: April 25, 2021, 6:00am
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3 Photos Henry Kaiser convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt that by splitting his production on the East and West Coast he could build 100 baby flattops as escorts for battleships. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt christens the USS Casablanca on April 5, 1943, before a crowd of 75,000 onlookers. The ship was the first completed and launched at Vancouver shipyard. Later, she was renamed Alazon Bay. (Contributed by National Park Service) Photo Gallery
In 1942, she was a hollow hull bearing the number 1092. Of the 137 ships constructed and launched there, she was first. Six months later, 1092 emerged as the first “baby flattop” built at Vancouver’s Kaiser Shipyard. Unfortunately, she contained a flaw.