Dr. Clarke's doctoral research found internal documents treating Cammell Laird as experts in large strike carriers before the yard had built one. HMS Howe was the only suitable large hull he found that fitted the proposed timeline. That supports a possible Admiral-class conversion, without establishing that a carrier was completed. The exact dates when the unfinished Admiral-class ships left the stocks or were scrapped remain unresolved in this account. Eagle and Furious were conversions, while Hermes was new construction. An unfinished Admiral hull could provide a better foundation for a large carrier than Courageous or Glorious.
Notable Point · 40:11-42:20
The tentative case for Admiral-class carrier conversions
An archival reference to Cammell Laird’s carrier expertise prompts an inference about the unfinished Admiral-class hulls.