She was originally named Seeandbee and was built as a Great Lakes luxury side-wheel steamer cruise ship for the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company.

[12][13] As a genuine flattop, Wolverine was shorter, and her flight deck closer to the water, than many of the fighting aircraft carriers of the day.

[15][16] Following the end of World War II, the Navy decommissioned Wolverine on 7 November 1945, and she was sold for scrap in December 1947.

First was paddle propulsion which offered an increased maneuvering capability and stability in rough weather along with more space for cabins and decks.

[3] Above that 3 ft (0.9 m) ballast compartment the ship was divided by eleven watertight bulkheads extending from keel to main deck with hydraulic doors operated from the engine room.

[3] Due to the restricted channels at both Cleveland and Buffalo additional maneuvering capability was required and a bow rudder and steam steering engine were provided.

After stopping in Cleveland at the East 9th Street pier, Seeandbee then headed to Buffalo arriving the next morning to what was called a "Royal Welcome".

[24] In addition to the scheduled operation between Cleveland and Buffalo, the vessel made special cruises to Detroit and Chicago along with other ports on the Great Lakes.

[33] In 1941, prior to American entry into World War II, the need to be able to train pilots in aircraft carrier takeoffs and landings became an area of concern.

[13] Commander Richard F. Whitehead made the initial proposal of converting lake steamers into training aircraft carriers but his idea was met with little interest.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor his proposal was fast tracked by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J.

[22] The Navy acquired Seeandbee from the C&B Transit Company on 12 March 1942, for the price of $756,500[note 1] and designated her an unclassified miscellaneous auxiliary vessel, IX-64.

At its peak, a crew of 1,250 men worked round the clock and it was reported that 45 miles of welding as well as 57,000 bolts with washers and grommets were used during the refit operations.

[36][37][38][5][36] The commissioning ceremony was closed to the public and was attended by only certain dignitaries, the new crew and roughly five hundred workmen who were still on board.

[42] In conjunction with NAS Glenview, the two paddle-wheelers afforded critical training in basic carrier operations to thousands of pilots and also to smaller numbers of Landing Signal Officers (LSOs).

Wolverine and Sable enabled the pilots and LSOs to learn to handle take-offs and landings on a real flight deck.

If all the storage spaces on the flight deck were filled with damaged aircraft, the day's operations were over and the carriers headed back to their pier in Chicago.

Neither carrier was able to generate sufficient speed to meet the "wind over deck" (WOD) landing minimums for aircraft such as F6F Hellcats, F4U Corsairs, TBM Avengers and SBD Dauntlesses.

Occasionally, when low-wind conditions persisted for several days and the pool of waiting aviators started to bunch up, the Navy turned to an alternate system of qualifications.

The case involved claims that the value of the ship was knowingly inflated by $275,000[note 8] by using false statements regarding the amount of time the C&B Transit Company owned Seeandbee, false statements regarding the amount invested in the ship and submitting falsified records that inflated the earnings produced from operating Seeandbee.