Legend of Warfare: USS Lexington (CV-2) From the 1920 to the Battle of the Coral Sea in WWII

When commissioned on December 14, 1927, USS Lexington and her sister ship, USS Saratoga, were the world's largest aircraft carriers. The Lexington-class carriers, as the ships were known, were the results of an effort akin to making lemonade from lemons. Both vessels were begun in 1920-21 as Lexington-class battle cruisers. Lexington, originally designated CC-1 (indicating battle cruiser), would have been a formidable warship armed with eight 16-inch guns in four turrets. The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 banned the constructions of such ships but permitted the conversion of such hulls into aircraft carriers. Accordingly, the Lady Lex, as she became known to her crew, was finished as a massive 888-foot-long aircraft carrier and retained the originally planned revolutionary turboelectric drive.