USS Vella Gulf was a Commencement Bay-class escort carrier of the United States Navy, originally named Totem Bay.

The ships were capable of a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), and due to their origin as tankers, had extensive fuel storage.

In 1941, as United States participation in World War II became increasingly likely, the US Navy embarked on a construction program for escort carriers, which were converted from transport ships of various types.

These proved to be very successful ships, and the Commencement Bay class, authorized for Fiscal Year 1944, were an improved version of the Sangamon design.

[1] They proved to be the most successful of the escort carriers, and the only class to be retained in active service after the war, since they were large enough to operate newer aircraft.

Given the very large storage capacity for oil, the ships of the Commencement Bay class could steam for some 23,900 nautical miles (44,300 km; 27,500 mi) at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

She arrived there on 4 May and took on part of her Marine Corps air group to begin initial training and a shakedown cruise off the southern coast of California.

[5][6] Vella Gulf was docked for minor repairs and then left California on 17 June, stopping in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, eight days later.

That evening, word spread that Japan had entered surrender negotiations, prompting many of the ships and ground troops ashore to launch pyrotechnics in celebration.

[6] On 21 September, Vella Gulf sailed south to Okinawa, where she embarked some 650 men to bring them back to the United States.

[6] Ten of the Commencement Bay-class ships saw significant service postwar as anti-submarine warfare (ASW) carriers, but they were small and had difficulty operating the new Grumman AF Guardian patrol planes, so the rest of the class remained laid up, and they were soon replaced in the ASW role by much larger Essex-class aircraft carriers.