Black smoke poured from four funnels and paddles thrashed the harbor waters to a froth as a huge steamer backed and filled crabwise into her berth. Below decks grimy stokers laid down their shovels and wiped coal dust from sticky faces as the great cylinders creaked to a stop. The time—only 19 years ago. The vessel—USS Wolverine, a coal-burning side-wheeler upon which an aircraft carrier’s flight deck and handling gear had been superimposed.
It was 1942. Although the country had been only three months at war, the submarine threat was menacing. Destroyers, smaller vessels by the score, and escort carriers were being cranked out of shipyards all over the country. But fledgling pilots could not simply be dropped aboard the cranky “baby flat- tops” to start killing subs. Neither could active carriers be spared for training duty. The problem was to find non-critical ships to operate in safe waters near training airfields and one solution was to convert unessential Great Lakes cruise liners to training carriers. The characteristics recommended by the Auxiliary Vessels Board called for a simple 500-foot flight deck and a speed of 18 knots. Among the few available ships meeting these requirements were Seeandbee and Greater Buffalo. Their coal-fired reciprocating engines had low pressure cylinders a full eight feet in diameter, connected by a walking beam to paddle wheels which could only turn in the same direction at the same speed. Rudders were mounted at both bow and stern to provide maneuverability. Although the hulls were steel, huge wooden four-decked superstructures overhung their sides as on a ferryboat. Seeandbee, built in 1912, was 424 feet long by 58 feet in the beam. Greater Buffalo was newer and a little larger. As carriers, they would displace about 7,200 tons and carry complements of over 300 officers and men.
The Bureau of Ships planned a fast conversion with a minimum of frills, utilizing the same contract plans and specifications for both ships. Seeandbee was soon being dismantled at the American Ship Building Company plant in Cleveland. With the Normandie fire disaster fresh in mind, stripping the ship was a tricky operation. Among the items removed was the entire superstructure and its contents of wicker settees, davenports and bedsprings, carpets and pillows, adult and child-size life jackets, basins and bar stools. By 6 May 1942, the hull was ready to be towed to Buffalo, where the second phase of the ship’s metamorphosis began. Great steel girders were erected to support the flight deck and a navigating bridge was built on a starboard “island.” Although no catapults or elevators were installed, innumerable pieces of equipment including arresting gear and radar had to be scraped together and jury-rigged the ship. At the last minute it was decided that the ship should have a name more in accordance with naval tradition, and Wolverine (IX- 64) was selected to honor the State of Michigan and the old USS Wolverine, the Navy’s first iron-hulled warship. Trials were completed on 11 August, she was placed in “limited commission” the next day, and transited to Chicago for full commissioning on 21 August.
Shakedown had its problems, too. A company engineer riding the ship wrote, “The crew still needs considerable experience in throwing coal the full length of the furnace, as the after end of the grate bars are very lightly covered.” It was also found that long operation at 18 miles per hour had worn grooves in the valves and linkages, causing the engine to pound at higher speeds. Then the Navy crew had to get used to the idea of taking boiler feed water directly from the lake. The skipper had reservations about the boilers and recommended conversion to oil fuel; however after some operating experience he withdrew this request, noting that “using a high grade Pocahontas coal and with increased boiler room efficiency, the Wolverine now operates most satisfactorily from the standpoint of smoke nuisance.”
Meanwhile, back in Buffalo, Greater Buffalo was in process of becoming USS Sable (IX- 81). Her major problem was a late decision to try out two new designs of steel flight decking, laid in alternate sections. On top of this, eight different types of commercial non-skid coatings were applied in checkerboard fashion. Sable was thus the first U. S. carrier with a steel flight deck, and the experience gained in evaluating this deck and its coatings was to prove of great value to the Fleet.
When, after considerable delay from ice lingering on Lake Erie, Sable was commissioned on 8 May 1943, she joined a respectable task force operating out of Chicago. In addition to the carriers, there were the converted cabin cruisers Lark and Peregrine which, with some Coast Guard cutters, acted as plane guards, and the freight lighter Commerce, which served as tender, ferrying personnel, supplies, and crippled planes between the anchored carriers and shore. The modus operandi of the carriers, while similar to that employed on the escort carriers, was unusual because of the absence of elevators, hangars, and catapults. The planes would fly out from Glenview, make eight qualification landings and deck take-offs, and return to their base.
A captain, who subsequently commanded Sable, recalled that although the winter of 1944-45 was the most severe in the history of the Chicago Weather Bureau, nevertheless the ships operated continuously “seven days a week from first light to darkness. Snow remained on the ground in Chicago for 66 days, and Lake Michigan was frozen over as far as 15 miles out.” With the help of Coast Guard icebreakers, operations were maintained. Although adventures were many, casualties were few. The over-all accident percentage among the pilots was less than one-half of one per cent.
By the end of the war, the two carriers had chalked up a fantastic total of landings—over 51,000 for Sable and 65,000 for Wolverine. Fitting tribute was paid to the men of these ships in this letter from the Commander of Naval Air Operational Training: “The USS Wolverine . . . and the USS Sable . . . have at all times been maintained in an efficient state of readiness and have qualified a total of 17,820 pilots for carrier duty. The skill and resourcefulness, the spirit of enthusiasm and teamwork demonstrated by all officers and men have made possible this high rate of carrier qualification commensurate with safety of operations.
“For their vital role in the mission of this Command, the Chief of Naval Air Operational Training desires to extend to all officers and men ... his appreciation for a job well done and a heartfelt and warm farewell to our Great Lakes Carriers.”
Demobilization came quickly. The ships were decommissioned together on 7 November 1945 and were ultimately broken up for scrap in 1948. In retrospect, they appear as one of the finest examples of wartime ingenuity ever turned out by the U. S. Navy. Considering the undoubted savings of lives by virtue of the realistic training provided, with minimum use of critical materials or diversion of ships from combat duties, the total conversion cost of under $6,000,000 was indeed a bargain.
Unarmed, ungainly, untouched by salt water and never in sight of an enemy, Wolverine and Sable nonetheless pulled more than their weight in winning the war. Though their paddle wheels will creak no more and the coal smoke never again blow across their flight decks, their names rate an honored place in the annals of the Navy.