References to Cammell Laird's earlier large-carrier design experience may connect to the suspended Admiral-class hulls Anson, Howe, and Rodney. Such conversions could have supported a proposed air attack on Wilhelmshaven using Sopwith Cuckoos and would have made more use of the hulls than trying to restore their original battlecruiser form. Internal and Treasury descriptions of Cammell Laird as a large or strike-carrier specialist are significant because the yard had not yet built a carrier. The timing of the references alongside the suspended hulls makes the conversion theory plausible. This remains a hypothesis: the documentary clues fit, but no smoking-gun record proves that a conversion project existed.
Chapter · 13:09-16:28
The uncertain Admiral-class strike-carrier proposal
Circumstantial evidence suggests the Royal Navy may have studied converting suspended Admiral-class hulls into large strike carriers, but no decisive document survives.