The USS Chapultepec was a U.S. Navy escort airplane carrier built and launched in 1942 during the Second Great War. She was a converted freighter whose superstructure had been removed and replaced with a flight deck and small starboard island. She carried 30 airplanes including divebombers, torpedo carriers and fighters. As such, her complement was about half that of a fleet carrier. Given her origins as a freighter, she couldn't do more than 18 knots as compared to a regular warship's 30.
The Chapultepec and her sister ship, the USS Trenton sailed for the Sandwich Islands immediately after commissioning to replace the sunken USS Remembrance. On their voyage, they escorted a convoy of freighters and tankers to keep the islands supplied.