In World War II, escort aircraft carriers were conceived as a solution to the shortage of naval air power for convoy protection by repurposing merchant hulls into pocket-sized aircraft carriers. In the Royal Navy, these escort carriers were often referred to as “Woolworth Carriers” or “Banana Boats”. Both of these derogatory names reflected their basic utility design and lack of the specification or sophistication of the fleet aircraft carriers. Escort carriers were designed to provide merchant convoys with air cover, supported by land-based aircraft for the entire Atlantic passage. The German U-boats had been able to attack Allied convoys in the so-called Atlantic Gap, a 600-mile stretch in mid-Atlantic, which was beyond the reach of land-based air forces.