(AVG-30: dp. 8,000; l. 492'; b. 69'6"; ew. 111'2"; dr. 26'3"; s. 17 k.; cpl. 856; a. 1 5"; cl. Charger)
Royal Navy name retained.
Charger (AVG-30) was launched 1 March 1941 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Chester, Pa.; as Rio La Plata; sponsored by Mrs. F. Espil; commissioned as HMS Charger (BAVG-4), Captain George Abel-Smith, RN, in command: transferred to the U.S. Navy 4 October 1941; reclassified AVG-30, 24 January 1942; commissioned 3 March 1942, Captain T. L. Sprague in command; and reported to the Atlantic Fleet.
Charger's area of operations throughout the war was Chesapeake Bay, and her duty the basic task of training pilots' and ships' crews in carrier operations. Men trained on her decks played an important role in the successful contest for the Atlantic with hostile submarines carried out by the escort carrier groups. Re-classified ACV-30 on 20 August 1942, and CVE-30 on 15 July 1943, Charger left Chesapeake Bay for two ferry voyages, one to Bermuda in October 1942, and one to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September 1945.
Charger was decommissioned at New York 15 March 1946, and sold 30 January 1947.
