Beautiful. I sure want to see photos of the finished carrier; if the whole ship comes up to this standard, it will be a true masterpiece.
For reasons that probably are obvious, I've always had a soft spot for this particular piece of equipment. I'm pretty confident in asserting that it has absolutely nothing to do with me or any of my ancestors. I'm more accustomed to seeing it spelled either "Tillie" or "Tilly," but "Tilley" may well have been used as well; I doubt if there was any regulation about the subject.
I've heard for years that the nickname originated with somebody called "Tillie [or Tilly, or Tilley] the Toiler." A few minutes ago I did a Google search on the phrase. The first thing on the page that popped up was "We have included references to Tilley the Toilet." Gee thanks, Google.
I'd always had a vague notion that the term was a nickname for a professional boxer or wrestler, but I was wrong. It seems that "Tillie the Toiler" was the title of a comic strip, originating in the 1920s, about a sexy-looking career girl named Tillie who got into all sorts of misadventures with amorous employers and other male admirers. Apparently she was also the subject of two long-forgotten Hollywood movies (the first one silent) - neither of which, according to the expert commentators on the web, did justice to the curvature of the lady in the comic strip. Somewhere, sometime, some Navy person must have seen some similaritybetween the lady in question and the motorized cranes used to haul damaged aircraft on board carriers. Just what that connection was I'm not sure I want to think about.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.