USS Solomons ( CVE - 67 ) USS " Solomons " ( CVE - 67 ) was a " Casablanca " class escort carrier of the United States Navy , the second ship to carry the name . She was converted from a Maritime Commission hull ( MC hull 1104 ) built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company of Vancouver , Washington . Her keel was laid on 19 March 1943 . Soon thereafter , she was assigned the first of her three names , Emperor . After being designated an auxiliary aircraft carrier , ACV - 67 , she was renamed Nassuk Bay on 28 June 1943 . On 15 July , she was redesignated an escort carrier , CVE - 67 . She was launched on 6 October 1943 by Mrs . F . J . McKenna while still bearing the name " Nassuk Bay " . One month later , she received her third and final name , Solomons , and as such was commissioned on 21 November 1943 , Captain M . E . Crist in command . Service history . " Solomons " spent the next four weeks in the Astoria , Oregon - Puget Sound area undergoing post - trial shakedown , tests , and exercises . Departing Astoria on 20 December 1943 , she stopped at Alameda , California , three days later and arrived at San Diego on 25 December . Following operations out of San Diego , she sailed for Pearl Harbor on 30 December . On 6 January 1944 , " Solomons " loaded aircraft and supplies there , embarked passengers , and departed on the 9th for the U . S . west coast . Arriving at San Diego on 14 January , " Solomons " conducted battle practice off the coast of southern California until the end of the month . She departed San Diego on 30 January bound for Norfolk , Virginia . During her approach to the Panama Canal , " Solomons " ' planes participated in a simulated aerial attack on the canal . The carrier arrived at Balboa , Panama , on 9 February , embarked passengers , and departed for Norfolk two days later , arriving on 16 February . Loaded with planes , supplies , and aviation stores , " Solomons " got underway on 21 March bound for Brazil , arrived at Recife on 13 April , and reported for duty with the 4th Fleet . On the next day , she got underway for her first antisubmarine patrol . This cruise , which lasted until 30 March , and the next , from 4 – 20 May , proved uneventful . Departing Recife in June 1944 , " Solomons " was soon involved in her sole U - boat engagement of the war . On 15 June , one of " Solomons " pilots reported contact with an enemy submarine some 50 miles from the carrier . and were immediately directed to the position of the contact . The pilot who had made the initial contact on the submarine was shot down by enemy anti - aircraft fire , but at 1654 , another " Solomons " aircraft regained visual contact . Five other " Solomons " aircraft soon joined up with it , and the group commenced a series of rocket and depth charge attacks , which resulted in sinking the submarine , although with the loss of another pilot . " Straub " succeeded in rescuing 20 survivors , including the commanding officer . " Solomons " continued anti - submarine air operations until 23 June , when she returned to Recife to refuel and disembark the captured German sailors . According to one crewman from the Solomons ( Oct . 2006 ) , based upon dialog with a pilot that witnessed the event , the sub came up firing , and took out at least two of the planes attacking it . According to that pilot , the one that took out the sub , flew his plane directly down the conning tower of the sub , to stop his fellow pilots from getting shot down . The crewman said it was the loudest noise he had ever heard in his life , when the resulting explosion occurred . After one more anti - submarine patrol and a visit to Rio de Janeiro , " Solomons " returned to Norfolk , arriving on 24 August . She remained at that port for a month before leaving for Staten Island , New York . She docked there on 25 September . She embarked 150 Army airmen together with their P - 47 Thunderbolt s and departed on 6 October , bound for Casablanca , French Morocco . By 7 November , she was back in the United States , this time at Narragansett Bay , Rhode Island . Solomons spent the rest of her active service engaged in qualifying Navy and Marine pilots in carrier landings , initially off Quonset Point RI . In January 1945 , she moved to Port Everglades , Florida , and continued her carrier landing qualification assignment throughout 1945 . For a week in December , she participated in an unsuccessful search for the 14 airmen of Flight 19 , and the 13 from the ill - fated rescue mission . On 15 May 1946 , " Solomons " was decommissioned at Boston Naval Shipyard and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 5 June . Sold for scrap to the Patapsco Scrap Corp . , Bethlehem , Pennsylvania , she was delivered to its agent on 22 December at Newport , RI .