Built for service during World War II, the ship was launched in March 1944, and commissioned in April, and served as a replenishment carrier.

Cape Esperance was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carriers ever built,[2] and designed specifically to be mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy war losses sustained in the early engagements of the Pacific War.

[4] By the end of the war, Casablanca-class carriers had been modified to carry thirty 20-mm cannons, and the amount of 40-mm guns had been doubled to sixteen, by putting them into twin mounts.

Due to Cape Esperance serving as a replenishment of transport carrier throughout most of her time in service, it frequently carried up to sixty aircraft during these missions, around the maximum amount at which the flight deck would still be functional.

A reasonable estimate puts the number of crew typically on board a Casablanca-class escort carrier at around 910 to 916 men.

As a part of Task Unit 30.8.14, she rendezvoused with the Third Fleet about 300 mi (480 km; 260 nmi) east of Luzon early on 17 December.

The location had been chosen because it lay out of range of Japanese fighters, but it also happened to lie within Typhoon Alley, where many Pacific tropical cyclones transited.

At 01:00 in the night, fueling operations were attempted with the destroyers, although heavy winds and listing seas complicated the matter.

At the same time, barometers on-board the ships began to drop, and tropical storm force winds were recorded.

[11] As the weather continued to deteriorate, Admiral William Halsey Jr. ordered fueling operations suspended at 13:10, just after noon.

He ordered his fleet to move to the next morning's planned rendezvous spot, approximately 160 mi (260 km; 140 nmi) northwest, and comfortably safe from the typhoon's impacts.

The ship's aircraft elevators had also been lowered, in the hopes that this transferred weight would negate the lists generated from the wind.

Conflicting orders meant that some of the destroyers attempted to do some fueling during the morning, even as waves with an estimated height of 60 ft (18 m) pounded the task force.

The typhoon's winds solved the weight problem, by ripping the aircraft on the flight deck from their restraints, and carrying them into the ocean.

However, at 12:28, an aircraft ended up stuck on the forward starboard stack, and caught on fire, forcing an evacuation of the bridge.

[9] Cape Esperance was recommissioned on 5 August 1950 under the identification T-CVE-88, as an aircraft transport carrier serving under the Military Sealift Command.

For the next nine years, Cape Esperance fulfilled a variety of duties, including supporting nuclear tests at Eniwetok, and ferrying aircraft to the Royal Thai Air Force.

She engaged in an average of nine transpacific voyages per year, reinforcing forces of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, as well as U.S. assets in the Pacific.