Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 1:26:21-1:28:32

Was an Admiral-class carrier conversion considered?

Archival clues suggest the Royal Navy may have considered converting Admiral-class hulls alongside Courageous and Glorious, although the evidence remains circumstantial.

Admiral Class BattlecruisersBattlecruisersCarrier ConversionsHMS HoodRoyal Navy Procurement
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Question

Were Courageous and Glorious the only carrier conversions considered by the Royal Navy?

Short answer

Probably not; circumstantial archival evidence suggests Admiral-class conversions were also examined, but no definitive proof has been found.

Notes

No surviving document cited in the lecture definitively orders an Admiral-class carrier conversion. The clue comes from later internal correspondence describing yards associated with the Admiral project as especially knowledgeable about large carriers. Those yards had not completed a carrier, so the statement implies design work not visible in the surviving record. The proposed link is a reasoned archival hypothesis rather than proof.