USS Cabot, a 11,000-ton Independence class small aircraft carrier, was built at Camden, New Jersey. Converted while under construction from the light cruiser Wilmington (CL-79), she was commissioned in July 1943. Early in 1944, Cabot arrived in the Pacific war zone and immediately became part of the Pacific Fleet's fast carrier striking force. She participated in all the Fleet's major carrier actions from then until the end of World War II, notably including the Marshalls Operation, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, raids on the Philippines and other Pacific islands, the Iwo Jima Operation, carrier strikes on Japan and the Okinawa Campaign. She was damaged by Japanese Kamikazes on 25 November 1944, but remained in operation despite casualties to her crew and structure.

Following Japan's capitulation in August 1945, Cabot supported occupation efforts and then returned to the United States in November. She was decommissioned in February 1947, but returned to active service in October 1948 as a Naval Air Reserve training carrier. During the early 1950s, Cabot deployed once to European waters and received modernization to fit her for the anti-submarine support role. Decommissioned in January 1955, she was reclassified as an aircraft transport and redesignated AVT-3 in May 1959.

In 1967, after over twelve years in "mothballs", Cabot was loaned to Spain, in whose navy she served as Dedalo. The loan was converted to a sale in 1972. Dedalo was stricken by the Spanish Navy in August 1989 and given to a private organization in the U.S. for use as a museum ship. However, during the subsequent decade plans to memorialize Cabot/Dedalo met with no success, and the now much deteriorated ship was sold for scrapping in 1997. After the failure of a lengthy legal effort to preserve the old carrier, she was cut up at Brownsville, Texas, beginning in November 2000.