SS Seeandbee
_Lake_Michigan_1943.jpg)
Wolverine at anchor in Lake Michigan on 6 April 1943.
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Seeandbee |
| Builder: | Detroit Shipbuilding Company |
| Launched: | 9 November 1912 |
| Acquired: | 2 March 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 12 August 1942 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 November 1945 |
| Renamed: | Wolverine on 2 August 1942 |
| Struck: | 28 November 1945 |
| Fate: | scrapped in December 1947 |
| Notes: | O/N 211085 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | side wheel paddle steamer |
| Tonnage: | |
| Displacement: | (Navy) 7,200 long tons (7,300 t) |
| Length: | 500 ft (150 m) |
| Beam: |
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| Draft: | 15.5 ft (4.7 m) |
| Installed power: | 12,000 ihp (8,900 kW) |
| Propulsion: | One three-cylinder steam engine (1 66 in (167.6 cm) high-pressure cyl., 2 × 96 in (243.8 cm) low-pressure cyl.) fed by 6 single-ended & 3 double-ended coal-fired boilers. |
| Speed: | 22 miles per hour (35.4 km/h; 19.1 kn) |
| Complement: | (Navy) 270 |
USS Wolverine (IX-64) was built as the Great Lakes side-wheel steamer Seeandbee launched 9 November 1912 that was converted into a freshwater aircraft carrier of the United States Navy in 1942 for advanced training of naval aviators in carrier take-offs and landings. The Navy decommissioned Wolverine in 1945 and sold her for scrap in 1947.
Seeandbee, intended for overnight service between Cleveland and Buffalo, New York, was designed by naval architect Frank E. Kirby for the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The company's experience led it to require two basic design features directly related to the intended use in overnight, luxury passenger service for passengers wanting a good night's sleep. First was paddle propulsion for the deck room gained by the side wheel type with the great width over paddle guards and thus more space for cabins and decks and an increased maneuvering capability and stability in rough weather over screw types. Second, the more expensive and much heavier compound inclined steam engine was chosen due to its ability to develop 12,000 horsepower at low revolutions without the vibration associated with the higher revolutions required by lighter vertical types for similar power.
The ship was built by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company, soon to be acquired and renamed American Ship Building Company, of Wyandotte, Michigan.Seeandbee, the largest side-wheel steamer in the world at the time, was launched 9 November 1912. According to the Interstate Commerce Commission the ship's tonnage was 6,381 GRT and 1,500 DWT.
The ship's dimensions as built were 500 ft (152.4 m) length overall, 485 ft (147.8 m) between perpendiculars, 58 ft (17.7 m) molded hull beam, 97 ft 8 in (29.8 m) extreme beam over guards with extreme depth of hull at stem being 30 ft 4 in (9.2 m) and 23 ft 6 in (7.2 m) molded depth. The hull was entirely steel with a double bottom extending almost 365 ft (111.3 m) feet containing water ballast and divided lengthwise with a watertight bulkhead and by transverse bulkheads into fourteen compartments. 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. In total there were seven decks: tank top, orlop, main, promenade, gallery, upper and dome. Steel was used to the promenade deck with fire protection for beams above that level and fireproof doors provided compartmentalization and steel fire curtains in cargo spaces. For fire alarm purposes the vessel was divided into fifty sections with fire hydrants spaced so that permanently attached hoses reached every point in the vessel and an extensive sprinkler system.
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