In 1942, Commander Richard F. Whitehead, a member of the staff of the Commander, Ninth Naval District, proposed an idea for the carrier qualification of the thousands of naval aviators expected to fill the ranks of the Navy and Marine Corps with the entry of the United States into World War II. With German U-boats prowling the east coast of the United States and the number of fleet carriers limited, Whitehead proposed operating training aircraft carriers on Lake Michigan. To fill this requirement, the Navy turned to a pair of vessels that were quite familiar with the waters of the Great Lakes.

The S.S. Seeandbe, which began operating on the Great Lakes in 1913, was an inland steamer that provided pleasure cruises, its amenities including a ballroom. With a length of 500 ft., the paddle wheel steamer could carry some 1,500 passengers. Along with the Seeandbe, S.S. Greater Buffalo was purchased by the Navy during 1942. Following conversion, they were commissioned as the training aircraft carriers Wolverine (IX 64) and Sable (IX 81) respectively.

The wartime demand for thousands of aviators to fill the cockpits of naval aviation mandated that the steamers Seeandbe and Greater Buffalo be converted to training carriers quickly. In this aerial view of Sable underway in Lake Michigan, the stark contrast in appearance from her pre-conversion configuration is quite apparent.

One element of the design of both Wolverine and Sable that attracted the immediate attention of the aviators was the relatively short distance between the flight deck and the water. This, combined with the fact that the of the flight deck was only 550 feet in length., left little margin for error for the fledgling carrier pilots attempting to make their first landings on a moving ship.