How many carriers did the US have in 1941?

Eight - three in the Pacific.

The three carriers were at sea or being refitted - a miscalculation by the Japanese. (USS Saratoga, USS Lexington and USS Enterprise). With no warning there would have been little chance of any of the carriers putting out to sea had they been in port on the 7th. enterprise was the only one to survive the war.

There were five others - Hornet was commissioned in 1941 - the others were earlier Langley, Ranger, Yorktown and Wasp. By the end of the war another 20 or so had been built or under construction.

bones and bilbo are correct; the first US carrier Langley was a flight deck on top of a ship built as a collier; Sara and Lex were designed and laid down as 45,000 ton battle cruisers; Ranger was built as a carrier but was about 1/2 sized and spent the whole war in the Atlantic; Yorktowm Hornet and Enterprise were the first designed to be and built from the keel up as full sized carriers; Wasp was a2/3rds sized sister to those 3, limited in size by the Washington Naval Treaty. There was an actual shooting war going on in the Atlantic on 6 December 1941, albeit not formally involving the US so that was where most of the modern, new-build Navy was deployed

not sure what you mean 'had been at Pearl how long to get to the Pacific', as Pearl is of course in Hawaii in the Pacific.....but as full speed from Norfolk to Panama would be 4 days, refuel,, transit the Canal and then 5,000 miles to Pearl @ 15 knots another 12 days......

Slight error by "Bilbo"--USS Saratoga also survived the war, and was used as a test target in postwar (1946) atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. She was sunk in one of them.

If Pacific fleet carriers had been sunk at Pearl Harbor, then there likely would have been immediate (i.e. ASAP) transfer of most remaining carriers to the Pacific--due to refitting that means probably a few weeks to a month.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pacific...

We had 3 in the pacific