Clayton M. Simmers: Father of the American Aircraft Carrier

Shipbuilder for the Navy

Clayton M. Simmers: Father of the American Aircraft Carrier By David F. Winkler, Ph.D.

With the cessation of hostilities ending World War I occurring a few months earlier, the General Board of the Navy met in the spring of 1918 to consider the path ahead for U.S. naval aviation. With budgetary constraints inhibiting earlier proposed recommendations of building aircraft carriers from the keel up, the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) had assigned Cdr. Clayton M. “Pop” Simmers to conduct preliminary investigations on converting the troopship Mount Vernon into the Navy’s first flattop. Such a transformation of a ship that started her career as the German liner KronprinzClayton M. Simmers essen Cecilie would not have been unprecedented given the British had converted a hull intended to be placed in service as the Italian liner Conte Rosso and commissioned it in late 1918 as the world’s first true aircraft carrier.

Learning of Simmers’ work, the General Board called in the constructor corps officer to discuss the conversion of a ship to a carrier with a panel of seasoned flag officers led by Rear Adm. Charles J. Badger and Rear Adm. Albert G. Winterhalter. Simmers’ career was likely facilitated through his upbringing in the industrial town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where Phoenix Iron Works produced cannon for the Union Army, rail for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and bridges that still span many creeks and rivers across the nation. From that industrial upbringing, Simmers attended the U.S. Naval Academy where he sang in the choir and had a reputation for virtue. Graduating with the class of 1902, Simmers served with the fleet before earning a master’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering from MIT and orders to BuC&R as a naval constructor.

Simmers informed the board that BuC&R had started to develop plans for converting Mount Vernon, but once the requirement for high speed was dropped, it had become evident that “the vessels of the Neptune (collier) class are possibly the ones which are most suited to fill the requirements” because the large holds could allow for storage of up to 40 aircraft. Recognizing that the fleet still maintained a requirement for colliers, Winterhalter and his colleagues pressed Simmers on converting an obsolescent pre-dreadnaught battleship or armored cruiser. Simmers noted that removal of gun turrets and supporting armored barbettes would be costly and, even if accomplished, could not approach the amount of stowage that the colliers offered. Asked what it would take to convert a collier, Simmers offered an itemized list: 1) Remove the current coaling gear and towers and erect a flying platform. 2) Install the necessary gear for handling and stowing airplanes. 3) Install an elevator and booms or derricks for handling planes over the side. 4) Rearrange quarters and provide additional quarters for the accommodation of the officers and enlisted personnel of the aviation forces. 5) Rebuild the navigating bridge. 6) Remodel main deck hatches to allow for the striking down of fuselages. 7) Install machine tools and fit out repair shops necessary in connection to the repair of airplanes. 8) Provide additional ventilation to additional quarters and possibly to the holds in case it is necessary for the preservation of the airplanes. 9) Extend fuel oil piping system to allow for the use of fuel-burning boilers, 10) Rearrange wireless and signaling arrangements. 11) Make alterations to the structure of the ship so as to provide for changing the smokestacks.

Of the proposed changes, Simmers noted the last would be the most challenging. Rear Admiral Winterhalter was

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With plans drafted by Commander Simmers who would serve as the BuC&R lead on the project, the job to convert the collier Jupiter into the experimental aircraft carrier Langley would be assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard.

sold on the concept, but he asked his colleagues to press Simmers: “I would like the gentlemen here to convince themselves this is the best plan.” Admiral Badger asked if the speed of colliers concerned the aviators. Capt. Noble E. Irwin, who had served as the Director of the Office of Naval Aviation since May 1917, injected that the 14-knot specification that had been provided to C&R combined with steaming into the wind would suffice. Irwin then asked if a converted collier, lacking its normal cargo, would be subjected to hogging issues, given the weight of the navigation bridge forward and the engineering plant aft. Simmers responded that heavy midships ballasting would solve that problem. Readdressing the speed issue, Simmers noted that Neptune, with its steam turbine driving a single shaft, could muster only 13 knots, whereas Jupiter, with its General Electric turbo-electric plant, drove two shafts enabling the ship to attain a maximum speed of nearly 16 knots.

After asking Simmers to generate a cost estimate to convert a collier into an aircraft carrier, Winterhalter turned to his colleagues and stated: “Jupiter is the best ship we can get. I tried to have Commander Simmers say she is the only thing but he would not say that. What is the next suitable?” The members of the board reviewed the characteristics of other ships brought up only to circle back to Jupiter. The General Board then took time to review the following year’s estimated appropriation for naval aviation which tallied over $83 million.

Simmers returned with a cost estimate of $355,000. Winterhalter turned to Captain Irwin: “That cost — $355,000 doesn’t appear to you prohibitory, having in view the state of your appropriations.” Irwin concurred. Winterhalter needed no further convincing. Asking Irwin about seeking immediate Navy Department approval to fund the work, Irwin warned that if the work was to be done in a private yard, funds would need immediate obligation—a

potential showstopper. In contrast, if the conversion occurred in the Navy Yard, the funds would be obligated the year the work was done. With plans drafted by Commander Simmers who would serve as the BuC&R lead on the project, the job to convert the collier Jupiter into the experimental aircraft carrier Langley would be assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard. Langley would be commissioned a century ago on March 20, 1922. Following his successful effort to convert Jupiter to the Navy’s first aircraft carrier, Simmers drew another assignment that gained him notoriety. As manager of the Boston Navy Yard, Simmers oversaw the restoration of the frigate Constitution. Following Simmers’ time in Boston, he received shipbuilding oversight assignments at the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Washington; New York Shipbuilding at Camden, New Jersey; Bethlehem Steel’s Fore River Shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts; Jupiter to Langley conversion at the Norfolk Navy Yard and the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York. With the outbreak of World War II, he took on one of his greater challenges with the liner SS Normandie. With the internment of the great French passenger ship and subsequent seizure into U.S. service, Simmers, as the Third Naval District Material Officer, had responsibility for her conversion to the troopship USS Lafayette. Unfortunately, the ship caught fire on February 9, 1942, and capsized after fireboats poured tens of thousands of gallons into the smoldering hull. Now Simmers had the unenviable task of salvaging the wreck. Stripped of her superstructure, the hull would be righted a year and a half later to be eventually scrapped after the war. Following his subsequent tour in Washington, Simmers retired to Alexandria, Virginia. He passed away on Christmas Eve in 1965. Appropriately, the Washington Post banner head for his death announcement read “SHIPBUILDER FOR NAVY.”