Small carriers as an experience base for fleet aviation

Heavy wartime use offers one explanation for Ark Royal's condition before her loss, alongside the damage-control errors. A top-heavy carrier could require immediate counterflooding, so habits learned in other warships could be dangerous. An earlier force of small carriers would have given more officers experience of these distinctive problems. Cruiser carriers and converted merchant ships could also take patrol and convoy duties that otherwise fell on fleet carriers. A small carrier carrying eighteen Swordfish, or twelve Swordfish and six Sea Gladiators, would still add aircraft to a combined force. Such ships could conduct diversionary attacks against Italian targets and potentially contribute to Taranto. Their conversion and modification would depend on sustained investment in suitable yards and facilities.