 Construction finally began upon the battlecruisers in 1920 and 1921 , after a delay of almost five months . However , that July , U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes called for a conference in Washington D.C. to be held that November . The stated goal was to curb the rapidly growing and extremely expensive naval construction programs . It was obvious to the General Board that the expensive new battlecruisers , which some thought were already obsolete , would be very attractive targets for cancellation . Accordingly , studies were done exploring the possibilities of converting one or more of the battlecruisers to different uses : one looked at a conversion to an aircraft carrier , while another contemplated a conversion to an Atlantic ocean liner . 
