Bearn carried battleship compromises into carrier service

Bearn inherited two turbine-driven shafts and two shafts powered by triple-expansion engines, a battleship arrangement meant to combine power with economical cruising. The conversion took nearly fourteen years from the hull's 1914 laying down to carrier commissioning in 1927. Its 21.5-knot maximum did little to generate the wind over deck that early aircraft needed for takeoff. The ship's residual belt and thin flight-deck armor are also distinguished from a purpose-designed armored hangar box. The result was neither a clean-sheet carrier nor an efficient exploitation of the old hull's machinery and protection.