at New Orleans August 1989, preservation efforts failed. Scrapped at Brownsville, Texas starting October 2000. Bataan CVL-29 – Decommissioned to reserve February 1947, recommissioned and modernised as ASW carrier May 1950. Decommissioned to reserve April 1954. Stricken for scrapping September 1959. San Jacinto CVL-30 – Decommissioned to reserve March 1947. Stricken June 1970. Disposal There was little margin for growth, as the ships' post-war careers showed. Independence was expended as an atomic bomb target, and the rest were laid up in 1947. Five returned to service in 1948–53, two with the French Navy. Two were used as training carriers, while Bataan saw Korean War combat duty with Marine Corps air groups. She and Cabot received anti-submarine warfare modernizations in the early 1950s, emerging with two funnels instead of the original four. All but the French ships were decommissioned in 1954–56 and were reclassified as aircraft transports in 1959. Cabot got a new lease on life in 1967, when she became the Spanish Navy's carrier Dédalo, serving until 1989 (in Spanish service, she was the first carrier to regularly deploy the Harrier jump jet). Despite efforts to preserve her, Cabot was scrapped at Brownsville in 1999–2003. Preservation efforts continued until the hull was half scrapped. See also – Japanese cruiser converted into a light aircraft carrier (not completed) References Bibliography Faltum, Andrew The Independence Class Aircraft Carriers, Nautical & Aviation Publishing, Light aircraft carrier classes Independence-class aircraft carriers Independence-class aircraft carriers Independence-class aircraft carriers New York Shipbuilding Corporation Ship classes of the French Navy