Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Office of the Chief of Naval OperationsNaval History Division • Washington
A coastal town on northeast New Guinea, possessing a good harbor, occupied by Allied troops on 2 January 1944.
(CVE-117: 10,900; l. 557'; b. 75'; ew. 105'2"; dr. 31'; s. 19 k.; cpl. 1,066; a. 2 5", 36 40mm., ac. 34; cl. Commencement Bay)
Saltery Bay, renamed Saidor (CVE-117) on 5 June 1944, was laid down on 29 September 1944 by Todd-Pacific Shipyards, Inc., Tacoma, Wash., launched on 17 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Walter F. Boone and commissioned on 4 September 1945, Capt. A.P. Storrs in command.
Following shakedown off the United States west coast, she served at Pearl Harbor from 12 December 1945 to 20 March 1946. Sailing via the Panama Canal, she operated at Norfolk, Va., from 16 to 22 April before returning, via the Panama Canal, to the west coast. Departing San Diego on 6 May, Saidor arrived at Bikini on the 24th to serve as a photographic laboratory for the atomic bomb testing program Operation "Crossroads." She processed film, documenting the destructive power of atomic weapons on selected targets at various ranges, during the nuclear explosions of 1 and 25 July. She departed Bikini on 4 August and returned to San Diego where she remained into 1947, when she began inactivation.
Saidor was decommissioned on 12 September 1947 and berthed with the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego. Reclassified CVHE-117 on 12 June 1955, and AKV-17 on 7 May 1959, she remained in the Reserve Fleet until 1 December 1970 when she was struck from the Navy list. She was sold to American Ship Dismantlers, Portland, Oreg., for scrapping on 22 October 1971.