Stu sent me a link to some pictures of WW2 British aircraft. I'm looking through them and I come across this picture. From the shape of the light blue panel on the underside of the nose of the airplane I deduce that this is a Spitfire. But wait a minute, the Spitfire was a land based fighter and isn't that an aircraft carrier superstructure in the background? I don't recall ever hearing about Spitfires being operated from aircraft carriers. Filename of the picture provides a clue: Seafire. Reading about this plane I come across something called "catapult spools". Searching the web turns up several instances of the term, but no good explanations. I do come across something else that captures my attention: Cata-Fighters. These were land based fighter aircraft launched from catapults installed on Merchant Marine vessels for defense against German bomber attacks.
How did they recover the aircraft? They didn't. The pilot bailed out, and was picked up out of the water by one of the ships in the convoy. The plane is lost. Since they quit losing ships after they implemented this system they considered it a good deal. Lose one airplane but save an entire shipload of war material.
I still don't know what a "catapult spool" is, but that's okay. My brain is full.
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