Back in the 70's I had a business partner who had done two West Pac cruises on the Oriskany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Oriskany_(CV-34)

Most of their cold cat shots went very wrong. Some of the pilots ditched in the ocean and were recovered, but some ejected before the plane left the deck and died when they landed on the flight deck, since their altitude was to low to deploy their automatic parachutes.

Beginning with the Gerald Ford, the navy is moving to electromagnetic launch systems instead of steam. Unfortunately, there are bugs that need to be worked out.