The French experimental aircraft carrier Béarn was originally designed as a Normandie-class battleship; she was laid down at the Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard in La Seyne on 10 January 1914. The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 interrupted work, which was halted for the duration of the conflict. By that time, work on Béarn had not significantly progressed: her hull was only 8–10 percent complete and her engines were only 25 percent finished. Her boilers were 17 percent assembled, and her turrets were at 20 percent completed. The incomplete hull was launched in April 1920 to clear the slipway, though the Navy had not yet decided what to do with it.
That year, a French delegation visited the British aircraft carrier HMS Argus, and out of this visit came the proposal to convert Béarn into an aircraft carrier, which was designated Project 171. On 18 April 1922, the Navy determined that Béarn was to be completed as an aircraft carrier. Her four sisters, which were at further stages of completion, were instead broken up for scrap. Much of the material from breaking up these ships was used to complete Béarn and several cruisers also ordered in 1922. Conversion work began in August 1923, and lasted until May 1927. She was to be an experimental ship and was slated for replacement in the 1930s by two new ships of the Joffre class. She was generally comparable to other early carriers developed by the major navies of the world. However, France did not produce a further replacement and as naval aviation lagged in France, Béarn continued to serve past her time of obsolescence. In 1939, she ended her career as an experimental ship, but after the defeat of France in June 1940 she was docked at Martinique, where she remained for the next four years. Eventually she was sent to the United States for a refit which ended in March 1945, allowing her to serve briefly before the end of the war as an aircraft transport. Her career ended in 1967 when she was finally dismantled. Over the course of her long career, Béarn never launched her aircraft in combat. She was named after the historic French province of Béarn.
French aircraft carrier Béarn
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CV Bearn 1928:
![[ img ]](http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/166782FranceCVBearnVII.png)
Bearn is my first carrier and I was a bit nervous about drawing her. 
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