From Luxury Liners to Aircraft Carriers: A Closer Look at the Conversion Process of USS Sable and USS Wolverine

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Developing Standard Methods, Public Interpretation, and Management Strategies on Submerged Military Archaeology Sites" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper explores the conversion process of SS Seeandbee and SS Greater Buffalo into USS Wolverine and USS Sable as they were transformed from luxury paddle-wheel steamers to training aircraft carriers in the Great Lakes and underscores the impact these two vessels had on the Naval pilot training effort during World War II. While Paul Somers’ book, Lake Michigan’s Aircraft Carriers (2003), offers a brief overview, this unique process has yet to be extensively researched. Primary sources, including correspondence between the US Navy and the American Shipbuilding Company, uncovered the strategic decisions, plans and implementation utilized to convert the two vessels in an extremely short timeframe of a few months. These remarkable conversion efforts enabled the US Navy to train over 15,000 pilots and deck crews, which were significant contributions to the war effort against the Japanese Imperial Navy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• Developing Standard Methods, Public Interpretation, and Management Strategies on Submerged Military Archaeology Sites

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 446