alt Hacker NewsI was aware of converted oil tankers ("oilers") that were fitted with a flight deck and hangar, but not paddlewheel propulsion.
I had a book from the ship's library of the U.S.S. Sanangamon, and I had read the wiki on the ship. (It suffered a grievous attack, but survived, and was scrapped after the war.)
Sangamon was converted back into a tanker and wrecked ironically in Japan after the war.
The Sangamon class along with the Bogue, Casablanca and Commencement Bay were classes of escort carriers (CVE) created during WWII for anti-submarine operations. They were also used on a wide variety of tasks including resupply (especially of aircraft) to the front in the pacific war, and close air support of landing beaches.
The Sangamons (there were 5) were converted tankers; the smaller Bogues were converted freighters. The later classes were built as aircraft carriers. All together the US built well over 100 CVEs during the war. Several were lost.
USS Wolverine and USS Sable were converted lake steamers built specifically for training air crews. Of course the US needed vast numbers of qualified carrier pilots to man all these new carriers. Training pilots for carrier operations required an aircraft carrier. But at the beginning of the war the US was very short on carriers.
Additionally there were U-boats and Japanese I-Boats sinking shipping on both American coasts. Any carrier out there lazily sailing around while pilots practiced landings would be a sitting duck without a big fleet around it.
The Great Lakes were safe from U-boats but large ships couldn't yet enter them since the St Lawrence Seaway didn't yet exist, so they needed to use ships that were already on the lakes.
I believe George HW Bush qualified as a naval pilot on USS Wolverine.
The Chicago Maritime Museum is a very small but well-curated museum that includes a large scale model of USS Wolverine.