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From: plains!umn-cs!LOCAL!thornley@uunet.UU.NET (David H. Thornley)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Definitions of naval vessel types?
Message-ID: <1991May17.063325.1763@amd.com>
Date: 16 May 91 21:59:39 GMT
References: <1991May4.020831.19998@amd.com> <1991May9.064341.13565@amd.com> <1991May16.052746.17645@amd.com>
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From: plains!umn-cs!LOCAL!thornley@uunet.UU.NET (David H. Thornley)


In article <1991May16.052746.17645@amd.com> wbt@cbema.att.com (William B Thacker) writes:
>>[previous discussion of CVA, meaning of auxiliary]
>
>In any case (in US terminology) when Auxiliary is part of a designation, it
>comes first; for instance, AO is an Auxiliary Oiler, AK is an Aux. Dry
>Cargo Freighter, etc.  So if there was such a thing as an auxiliary
>carrier, it would be AV (which, I believe, is actually a designation for
>"seaplane tender.")

At least in WWII, an AV was a seaplane tender.  However, the CVEs
were originally AVGs (auxiliary aviation ship), then ACVs
(auxiliary aircraft carriers).  Sometimes ships are clearly
warships (like cruisers), some ships are clearly auxiliaries
(like AK for cargo ships - these would not, BTW, be referred to
as auxiliary cargo ships, cargo ships already being considered
auxiliaries), and some are somewhere in between (like the
CVEs or British "auxiliary merchant cruisers").

DHT