Complicating the situation further, many of the later Japanese carriers would point out that while Argus was the first operational carrier-as-we-know-them, Hōshō was the first that was built specificially for the role (Argus, Langley et al. were converted from existing hulls--Argus was laid down as the ocean liner Conte Rosso for an Italian contract, while Langley, like Vestal, was a converted fleet collier).

(Hōshō herself, being a modest and retiring soul, would just as soon they not make such a fuss about it, but her personality has a tendency to inspire fierce loyalty in those she's spent time looking after. :)

Connected to the above, a lot of it has to do with individual personalities. HMS Dreadnought (1906), for example, is the undisputed technological "mother" of the uniform-heavy-armament battleship, to the extent that her name is the generic term for all battleships built along her lines, which is to say pretty much every battleship built after her--but her personality is so resoundingly un-maternal that no one ever thinks of her as the mother of anything.

>This is pretty much the state of the relationship between Fubuki and
>Tashkent - Tashkent recognized Fubuki as the progenitor of their
>particular ship design, to whom they all owe their existence to, but
>she doesn't send her chocolates and a card on Mother's Day.

HMS Coventry (D118) does, and Fubuki wishes she would stop. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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