Wartime precursors to modern heavy-lift ships

Did the Second World War have heavy-lift ships comparable to modern vessels that carry other ships?

There was no close equivalent for full-size warships, but large landing ships carried smaller landing craft and performed a related transport function.

No Second World War ship is identified as directly equivalent to the modern heavy-lift vessels used to transport damaged warships. Amphibious shipping is the nearest functional parallel on a smaller scale. Large landing ships could carry smaller landing craft on their decks during ocean passages and then deliver them into the assault area. That arrangement solved a related transport problem, but it did not provide the same lift capacity or recovery role as a purpose-built modern heavy-lift ship. The ships share a logistics principle without forming a direct line of descent.