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RE: USS Sable and USS Wolverine

brad kaste

brad kaste

Charter Member
RE: USS Sable and USS Wolverine

Most of you are quite familiar with the two converted Great Lakes ships that were transformed into training carriers for USN pilots. Here's some photographs I've never seen before. And maybe for you too. Quite amazing when you think about it. There's quite a few photos so take you time. You'll miss out though if you don't scroll down to the end.


The Great Lakes provided vital support for the war effort in WWII, from building 28 fleet subs in Manitowoc, WI to providing the bulk of US industrial output, we could not have won the war if not for the benefits of the Great Lakes and their related industry.

However there was another benefit of the lakes that is often overlooked. Japan quickly lost the war because, among many other things, its navy could not replace its carrier pilot losses.

We could. But how did we train so many pilots in both comfort (calm seas) and safety (no enemy subs)?

We took two old side-wheel Great Lakes passenger steamers and turned them into training carriers on Lake Michigan !


Virtually every carrier pilot trained in the war got his landing training on these amazing ships! Sadly nothing but these great photos and the wrecks of the aircraft that ditched alongside them remain to tell their fascinating story!

Check this out! USS Sable and USS Wolverine. Be sure to scroll all the way to the end!!! Click on attachment below.


http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=48962






























 
i saw people asking on that thread about SNJ-5C's with tailhooks..i also saw Chuck Wahl's name being spoken of...i wonder why ,with all the people asking..why did he not post a pic of his?..is it not really as he claims?...almost my bed time..so ill post a pic of his plane tomorrow...it has the fender on it aswell..and he told me at an airshow that it was original to the plane and he left it dented to show it was authentic....

just makes me wonder.
 
I like how they made the flight deck much longer and wider than the actual hull. Even though the hull was much smaller than that on a ship built from the keel up as a carrier they could still put a somewhat normal for that period sized flight deck on it.
 
They have a massive model of the Wolverine on display at the Buffalo Naval Park, just downriver from the AmShip yard where the two vessels were converted. I always liked the attached (poor quality) pic of the pair berthed alongside Chicago's Navy Pier. Would've been cool if one of the ships was preserved, but wooden hulls are not an easy thing to maintain, even in freshwater.

26_big.jpg
 
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