Drachinifel patreon

The Drydock - Episode 299 (Part 1)

🕑 Added 2024-05-25 07:00:03 +0000 UTC

Comments

Allen Parmet

2:48-Converting a train ferry to an auxiliary carrier: During WW2, the USN converted two ships on the Great Lakes into aircraft carriers for the sole purpose of qualifying Naval aviators in carrier landings. The advantage of using Lake Michigan meant that there would be no worries about U-boats and no need for escorts, save plane guards. No armor, no hangar deck or extra berths for aircrew, who would always fly back to their home fields. The resulting vessels, the USS Wolverine and USS Sabine, were converted from commercial boats. Both were side-wheelers and coal burners. Coal meant that no oil was taken from combat ships, although the Navy did have to come up with stokers. Both were too large to fit through the Welland Canal and hence could not go to salt water. The Sabine was the former SS Greater Buffalo, a passenger boat capable of carrying 5000. The Wolverine, the first boat, was initially a choice between a train ferry, SS City of Midland and a passenger boat, SS Seeandbee (owned by C & B Transit). Since the ferry was already useful toward the war effort and the excursion boat was not, the decision was made to convert the Seeandbee. The resulting deck width of 96 feet was wider than USS Essex, a bonus for novice carrier pilots. 17,820 pilots qualified for carrier duty aboard their decks, including future president George H. W. Bush. Sorce: Somers, PM. Lake Michigan's Aircraft Carriers, 2003.

Ted Jones

Couldn't you block the oxygen supply to a coal bunker? Re: Wyoming, forget about speed, just make her a kamikaze resistant antiaircraft BB. Just add a reasonable number of 5" and 40mm mounts. Use her the way destroyers had been used to detect and take on attacking Japanese attacks.