USS Lexington (CV-2)

An aerial view of Lexington on 14 October 1941
History
United States
Name	Lexington
Namesake	Battle of Lexington
Ordered	1916 (as battlecruiser) 1922 (as aircraft carrier)
Builder	Fore River Ship Building Co., Quincy, Massachusetts
Laid down	8 January 1921
Launched	3 October 1925
Commissioned	14 December 1927
Reclassified	As aircraft carrier, 1 July 1922
Stricken	24 June 1942
Identification	Hull number: CC-1, then CV-2
Nickname(s)	"Lady Lex", "Gray Lady"
Fate	Scuttled after the Battle of the Coral Sea, 8 May 1942 Shipwreck found, 4 March 2018
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Lexington-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	36,000 long tons (37,000 t) (standard) 47,700 long tons (48,500 t) (deep load)
Length	888 ft (270.7 m)
Beam	107 ft 6 in (32.8 m)
Draft	32 ft 6 in (9.9 m) (deep load)
Installed power	16 Yarrow boilers 180,000 shp (130,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 shafts, 4 sets turbo-electric drive
Speed	33.25 knots (61.58 km/h; 38.26 mph)
Range	10,000 nmi (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	2,791 (including aviation personnel) in 1942
Armament	4 × twin 8 in (203 mm) guns 12 × single 5 in (127 mm) AA guns
Armor	Belt: 5–7 in (127–178 mm) Deck: 0.75–2 in (19–51 mm) Gun turrets: 0.75 in (19 mm) Bulkheads: 5–7 in (127–178 mm)
Aircraft carried	78
Aviation facilities	1 Aircraft catapult

USS Lexington (CV-2), nicknamed "Lady Lex",^[1] was the name ship of her class of two aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which essentially terminated all new battleship and battlecruiser construction. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. Lexington and her sister ship, Saratoga, were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II. On more than one occasion these included successfully staged surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship's turbo-electric propulsion system allowed her to supplement the electrical supply of Tacoma, Washington, during a drought in late 1929 to early 1930. She also delivered medical personnel and relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua, after an earthquake in 1931.

Lexington was at sea when the Pacific War began on 7 December 1941, ferrying fighter aircraft to Midway Island. Her mission was canceled and she returned to Pearl Harbor a week later. After a few days, she was sent to create a diversion from the force en route to relieve the besieged Wake Island garrison by attacking Japanese installations in the Marshall Islands. The island surrendered before the relief force got close enough, and the mission was canceled. A planned attack on Wake Island in January 1942 had to be canceled when a submarine sank the oiler required to supply the fuel for the return trip. Lexington was sent to the Coral Sea the following month to block any Japanese advances into the area. The ship was spotted by Japanese search aircraft while approaching Rabaul, New Britain, but her aircraft shot down most of the Japanese bombers that attacked her. Together with the carrier Yorktown, she successfully attacked Japanese shipping off the east coast of New Guinea in early March.

Lexington was quickly refitted in Pearl Harbor at the end of the month and rendezvoused with Yorktown in the Coral Sea in early May. A few days later the Japanese began Operation Mo, the invasion of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and the two American carriers attempted to stop the invasion forces. They sank the light aircraft carrier Shōhō on 7 May during the Battle of the Coral Sea, but did not encounter the main Japanese force of the carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku until the next day. Aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown badly damaged Shōkaku, but the Japanese aircraft crippled Lexington. A mixture of air and aviation gasoline in her improperly drained aircraft fueling trunk lines (which ran from the keel tanks to her hangar deck) ignited, causing a series of explosions and fires that could not be controlled. Lexington was scuttled by an American destroyer during the evening of 8 May to prevent her capture. The ship's wreck was located on 4 March 2018 by RV Petrel, which was part of an expedition funded by Paul Allen.