Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "USS Saratoga (CV-3) - Guide 233" video.

The thing about operating in the Great Lakes is the horrible winter weather. I live in Michigan. The cold, snow and wind may be great training for being in the Aleutians or North Atlantic, but a challenge for green pilots. And, often, Lake Michigan ices up too much for navigation.
1
@bostonrailfan2427 iirc, the WNT allowed carriers to be armed with guns up to 8". The USN did not know, for sure, how carriers would be used, so apparently considered the possibility that the carrier would operate alone, in a scouting role, and needed to be able to defend itself against other surface ships.
1
I am really conflicted about the Lexingtons. Great looking ships that gave the US a leg up on gaining experience with large air groups, but, at the same time, they are so inefficient, carrying only a few more aircraft than a Yorktown on more than 50% more displacement, when the treaty made displacement a limited commodity. If the US had foregone the Lexingtons they would have had enough treaty displacement to build three Yorktowns, with enough left over to make Wasp another full sized, "improved" Yorktown.
1
@deidryt9944 with Ranger, and, perhaps, a pair of proto-Yorktowns, of more reasonable size. C&R knew how to design a ship to be more efficient at carrying aircraft in the early 20s: build the hull broader aft to maximize the length of the hangar. They could not do that with the Lexingtons because they were already committed to the battlecruiser hull shape, with a long, tapered stern. Ranger, on half the displacement, had a longer hanger than a Lexington. I figure the USN was lucky that it did not make a gigantic mistake when designing the Lexingtons. As they aged, the worst thing that happened was the midships elevator became useless as it was too small. Akagi and Kaga were originally built with a short main flight deck and flying off decks from both hangar levels, a huge and expensive mistake that they had to extensively rebuild the upper decks to correct in the late 30s. The other problem was, with the Lexingtons, the USN burned nearly half of it's treaty allotment for carriers, crimping their future building.
1