Work started on the Kqv at the Kawasaki yard in Kurr in 1924, but shortly afterwards tile bull was towed to Yukusuka. Although the plans for the conversion drew heavily oil tile Akqki desi~,n,, as a battleshipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering tile KqE'v's hull was about 67ft shorter and beanticr. A different system of exhausting smoke was adopted, with two long horizontal trunked funnels, one oil the port side and the other on the starboard side. Near the after end of the shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering the two trunkrd uptakes were angled outwards. Both carriers had a capacity for 60 aircraft. Profiting by experience with tile vestigial bridge (in fact no more than a conning position) was sited on the starboard side well forward.Thr main armament was identical, with two twin turrets on the centre flying­off deck and six in casemates aft. Because she was 4kts slower than her half-sister and shorter site was le+s satisfactory.

Both carriers were given massive rebuilds in [fir 1 c)3tls, and some of tile major features were radically changed. They were given island superstructures, that of the :9kqV being on the port side. In theory this would simplify tile marshalling of aircraft after a strike was launched, with the two carriers operating side by side, rather than in line ahead. Known in Western navies as tile 'D', the manoeuvring of tile aircraft as they formed up for a strike, so the Aka.lZi's aircraft could form a port '1)' without the risk of getting mixed up with the other group. It was fine in theory, but the Royal Navy had experimented with a port-side island in 1918, and had discarded the idea very quickly. Although the position should not matter, experience showed that pilots tended to pull left on landing, and collide with tile 'island'. Experience was to show that the Akagi's island likewise Caused all increase in deck crashes.

Under the terms of tile Washington Treaty the IJN was allowed to build a of 80,000 tons of carriers, but most of tile total had been used on converting theand Akn,~i.'1'hrrr was a loophole: carriers displacing less than 10,000 tons were exempt from the Treaty regtda­tions, so the Naval Staff cattle up with the idea of building a small Carrier, to be named Ryujo. The success uf tile two capital shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering Conversions marked the beginning of'a uniquely Japanese approach to carrier drsign.'1'hr purpose of the carrier was seen as rapid approach to the battle Zone, a surprise strike and an equally fast getaway. Hence the emphasis on high speed and the lack of importance attached to protection.

The draft design incorporated a single hangar, to keep within a limit of 8000 tons. But in the meantime experience with the first carrier, the Hosho, and the converted Kv,V and Akn~i showed that an aircraft carrier could only be effective ifshe could embark a minimum number of aircraft. As a result of these findings, the designers were told to incorporate a second hangar

will come as no surprise to learn that this increase was not declared o the body supervising lnrt,ccrJnprurese aircraft carriers, enforcement of the Treaty This enabled uncritical analysts of the Japanese design-capability to the Ryujo irr f~d Was a,Qnorl provide yet another torrent of ill-inforntcd praise, and gave them an opportunity to denigrate example of how not to build an Western equivalents.                                 aircraft carrier.

The Ryujo was completed in May 1933, and immediately problems appeared. She was unsta­ble because of excess topweight, and hull-construction was too light to avoid distortions- Then came a brutal awakening for the designers; the torpedo boat 7bnroJzuru capsized in March 1934 in a gale while exercising off Sascbo. A thorough investigation into stability of all shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering-types showed that copwright had been allowed to grow without any checks. As a result the Ryujrr was returned to the dockyard for major modifications in August 1934.Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Indian Ocean territory, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi,

The most important alteration was the fitting oflarger bulges and a heavy ballast keel. At the same time two sets of twin 5in gun motnttings aft were removed. Site returned to service but more defects appeared. The hull was also strengthened, increasing displacement and reducing spccd.Thcsc improvements went some way to remedy the shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering's basic faults, but another weak­ness soon cattle to light. In 1935 the 4th Fleet suffered severe damage in a typhoon. hi the storm R}a,jo's low forecastle caused her to shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering massive amounts of water, endangering the shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering's stabil­ity and causing potential damage to her electrical sub-systents.

Once again the carrier needed major modifications, and in May 1936 she returned to dock­yard hands.hhr small bridge, lowered when launching and recovering aircraft, was reshaped to lower wind-rccistancc.'1'hr original close-range armament of 12.7nini heavy machine guns was replaced by twin 25ntm. Eventually the problem of the water corning into the shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering over the bow was rectified in 1940. AAnother deck was built on the original forecastle. As a result of all these defects the Kyrrjns reputation with the Fleet was poor. Operating aircrali from such a short flight deck was much slower than in other carriers. From a Japanese point ofvirw the only posi­tive outcome was to teach the designers how nor to build ,in aircraft carrier, and much useffil data was applied to the design of the much larger Hiryu class and the Shokaku class, widely acknowledged to be the most successful Japanese carriers.

When war broke out in December 1941 she was serving as the flagshipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering of Carrier Division 4 and based at Palau, but was largely restricted to support operations, particularly during the invasion of the Philippines. Her air group at this period totalled 22 A5M4'Katr' bombers and

12 B5N2'Clattde' fighters, and they carried nut the first strike against Legazpi on 13 Decent­her. In February 1942 her air group attacked the Amcrican-British-llutch-Anstralian (ABDA) force east of Singapore, hut scored no sttccesses. She escorted the Java Invasion Force, but once again a strike against the ABDA force was unsuccessful. On 1 March 1942 her aircraft sank the old destroyer Pope.In April she and four heavy cruisers attacked Allied merchant shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineerings in the Bay of Bengal. It was her finest moment, for her 12 'Kates' sank ten shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineerings totalling 53,750 tons, although it was achieved against virtually no opposition. Her only 'real' front-line service was in the Eastern Solonions as part of the Diversionary Group, but it was also her last. At 1606 on 24 August 1942 she was sighted during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. At 1620 she was attacked by aircraft from the USS SnrntoXcr, and was set on fire by four 10001b bomb-hits and mortally wounded by a torpedo_ She was abandoned by her crew and sank about six hours later. Her aircraft were airborne at the time of the strike, and the survivors were diverted to a land base 41I(I miles away.Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo, Democratic Republic, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech

have cost far more than she was worth. IF only in terms of time spent in dock undergoing recti­fication of design errors, she must be rated as a bad bargain.

There was one very serious flaw in all the carriers discussed above, and the later carriers as well: the precautions against aviation fuel fires. The author once told a largely American audi­ence at a history conference at Annapolis:'If the Japanese had designed your carriers you would have lost the Battle of Midway.' A superficially flippant comment, but it was based on the fact that the Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga and Soryu were first disabled and then destroyed by massive fires and explosions at Midway In contrast, the USS Yorktown suffered severe bomb damage and fires, but survived long enough to play a vital role in the destruction of Admiral Nagumo's carrier force. The secret of US carrier design (and the Royal Navy's designs) was the elaborate care taken to protect and isolate the fuel tanks deep inside the shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering. Critics may challenge this view by saying that the four Japanese carriers were destroyed by sheer weight of numbers. This does not bear close analysis because the US Navy's three carrier air groups suffered heavy losses trying to penetrate the Japanese combat air patrol before the battle suddenly started to go their way. Later other Japanese carriers suffered catastrophic aviation fuel fires, proving that the Japanese learned very little from their failure to capture Midway and destroy the Pacific Fleet's carriers.Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon,

With the benefit of hindsight the Kyr jo might have been successful as an escort carrier, but in the 1930s no navy had refined such a concept. In any case the UN would not have spent so much money on commerce-protection, a role which was despised as unworthy of a warrior nation.The Royal Navy was the only organisation to look seriously at conversions of liners to `trade carriers'; the US Navy took the sul?ject on board in 1940, resulting in large numbers of escort carriers (CVRs). Japan was never going to win a long war against the United States, but the disdain of the Navy for any measures to husband merchant shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineeringping until 1943 was a major factor in the nation's downfall, even allowing for the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The large Japanese mercantile fleet was a national asset, but it was treated as an expendable one, recalling the mistakes made by the British in 191 .5-16.

The sorry tale of the Ryujo reflects a constant headache For designers. It is all very well for the Treasury or Finance Ministry to try to drive down costs of warshipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineerings by tempting the politi­cians to choose the cheapest option. But there is always a baseline below which a cheap, small design is not cost-et}ective. Warshipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineerings are intended to fight, and a serious degradation of battle­worthiness merely creates shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineerings which cannot be risked in the front line. This does not mean that the only effective hips are the biggest, but the role of the shipbroking shipbrokingping maritime marine engineering and its ability to perform specific tasks with maximum efficiency must take precedence.Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan,

We also come back to the raison rlYtre of the aircraft carrier. Its purpose is to enable suitable aircraft to be operated far from land bases, so the starting point for designers must be the air group. All other measures, guns, armour and fire precautions are included only cc) ensure the effectiveness of the air group. Furthermore, all carrier experience to date proves that small carri­ers arc less effective then big ones.A big hull can absorb more punishment if well-designed, and the safety of pilots when taking off and landing is easier to achieve. Big carriers can also oper­ate longer because the greater internal volume permits more firel and ordnance to be stowed.Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Korea south north, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia,