The light aircraft carrier USS Cabot was laid down at New York Shipbuilding, in Camden, as the light cruiser USS
Wilmington on 16 March 1942. She was re-ordered as a carrier and renamed 2 June 1942, and commissioned 24 July 1943. During WWII she served with TF38/TF58, the fast carrier striking force in the Pacific, and was hit by a kamikaze 25 November 1944.
 

Following WWII she went into reserve 11 February 1947, but was recommissioned 27 October 1948 as an ASW carrier, returning to reserve in 1955. The ship was taken out of reserve in 1965 and went into overhaul at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in preparation for transfer to the Spanish Navy. The ship re-commissioned in Spanish service 30 August 1967 as SNS Dedalo (R01).

Following many years of service as an ASW and VSTOL carrier, Dedalo returned to the US and was decommissioned at New Orleans 5 August 1989. Her ownership was transferred to the Cabot/Dedalo Association, and she was to be preserved as a museum. Sadly the Association wasted the funds it had raised for the reservation project, and the fate of this historic ship was soon in doubt. Despite being in excellent condition and in nearly unaltered WWII state (including her original 40 mm AA guns), the last surviving light carrier of WWII sat at a pier in New Orleans for many years as the Association made no real attempt to preserve the ship.

In 1995, citing financial pressures, the Association attempted to sell the ship to foreign shipbreakers, but the sale was thwarted by preservation and environmental concerns. Despite preservation efforts by outside parties, the Association seemed interested only in scrapping the ship, and she was towed to Port Isabel, TX 18 October 1997 for that purpose. Cabot was moved into a shipbreaking berth at Brownsville, TX, on 9 August 1998. However, there is currently an injunction in place prohibiting scrapping of the ship, and efforts to save the ship continue.

Frunished by Gerald F. Clement, Jr.