Merchant conversions bought time for escort carriers

The wartime totals were thirty-five CAM ships, five fighter catapult ships, nineteen MAC ships, and roughly 124 escort carriers. Catapult ships could launch only once, while a MAC ship offered the major advantage of recovering its aircraft. Escort carriers were the preferred platform because they could operate a larger, more flexible air group and support repeated missions. HMS Argus provided a Royal Navy precedent as a converted merchant hull whose Second World War capability was roughly comparable to a small escort carrier. Britain, the United States, and Japan had all studied merchant hulls or designed ships with later carrier conversion in mind, yet the Royal Navy did not begin its program until war had started. The improvised ships bought time for specialist vessels to enter service. Their relative numbers show that emergency conversion worked best as a bridge within a much larger carrier-building effort.