9 photos of the USS Wolverine, a strange WWII aircraft carrier that was originally a luxury paddlewheel steamer
This is the SS Seeandbee in 1912, decades before the US purchased it in March 1942.
To convert the ship into a carrier, the US stripped off the large wooden superstructure and exhausts.
And built a flight deck in its place.
The USS Wolverine was commissioned in August 1942. It landed its first aircraft in September 1942.
It had a 550-foot flight deck, about a long as modern-day guided missile cruiser.
Source: globalsecurity.org
Twelve coal-fired Scotch boilers propelled its two side-wheels to a top speed of less than 23 mph.
Source: navsource.org, globalsecurity.org
And had no armaments.
During WWII, the Wolverine, along with its sister trainer, the USS Sable, conducted more than 120,000 landings and qualified more than 35,000 pilots.
But the trainer carriers had a problem with what is called "wind over the deck."
When there was little or no wind on Lake Michigan, training had to stop because the carriers couldn't generate enough speed to support landings.
Source: globalsecurity.org
The Wolverine was later decommissioned in November 1945, a few months after the war's end, and later sold for scrap.
Source: US Navy
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