odd aircraft carriers

these are pictures of USS Sable IX-81 and USS Wolverine IX-64. these strange little aircraft carriers were converted from coal fired, paddle wheel, great lakes cruise ships. they both had 3 cyl. compound reciprocating steam engines driving side wheels. they could make around 17.5-18kts at flank speed. they both operated on Lake Michigan as training vessels for naval flight crews and pilots. as you can see the superstructure of both cruise ships was removed and replaced with a flight deck. wooden deck on Wolverine and the very first steel flight deck on any USN carrier on Sable. Sable was slightly larger than Wolverine. the first picture shows cruise ship SeeandBee which became USS Wolverine. the next to last picture is Greater Buffalo which became USS Sable. second picture is Sable under way with a practice flight on the deck. third is a painting of Wolverine showing a trainer about to land and take off. the last picture shows Wolverine just sitting in the water with some of the crew visible forward on the flight deck.