Unicorn was laid down at Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1939 but did not complete until 1943, and the Admiralty simplified her intended maintenance fit to get a more carrier-like ship into service. Excluding armament, she cost about £2.5 million and could carry roughly thirty-three aircraft, compared with perhaps fifteen to eighteen for Argus and six normally operational aboard Audacity. Her delay illustrates how specialized carrier construction competed for a narrow set of yards and skilled resources. A merchant conversion could use many more yards, although it offered less capability than a purpose-built ship of Unicorn's scale. The Board of Trade reasonably wanted to preserve commercial tonnage already in short supply. Treasury behavior that effectively prolonged the Ten Year Rule compounded the problem by postponing the political case for wartime conversions.
Notable Point · 27:13-33:24
Unicorn exposes the shipyard case for merchant conversion
A purpose-built carrier offered more capability, but merchant conversions could use yards unable to construct a ship like Unicorn and therefore expand flight-deck capacity faster.