Corsairs & Seagulls

SOC alongside its mothership, USS Houston.

SOC aboard seaplane tender USS Currituck in 1947. The plane is being readied for dropping in the water.

Same aircraft seen in previous photo shows the rearseat man stowing the bridle used when hauling the aircraft in or out of the sea.

A pair of USS California SOCs as seen from the rear cockpit of another.

Another view of SOCs of the battleboat USS California.

SOCs and a variant, the SON-1 from Scouting 9 of the USS Honolulu.

O2Us aboard USS Chester. She and USS Indianapolis (R) are seen refueling from the tanker USS Salinas while enroute to South America in 1936.

USS Indianapolis arriving in Rio de Janeiro with a special passenger: President Roosevelt.

Chester and her O2Us depart Montevideo.

SOCs, USS Tuscaloosa.

Battleship USS New York is a sea of cranes and seaplanes.

USS Idaho. It took some guts to climb out on those guns.

Battleship USS Tennessee and her SOCs.

Here are two aircraft that had ridiculously long service lives by the standards of their time: Vought’s many variations of the O2U Corsair and the Curtiss SOC Seagull. In an era when an aircraft was here and gone in only a few years, the Corsair and Seagull served the US Navy for 19 and 14 years, respectively (and approximately).