SOUTH SALEM STUDIOS
Merchant Miniature Ships, Mark I
(Compiled by William H. Croft)

Merchant Miniature Ships, Mark I. Sixteen 1:1200 scale model ships manufactured by South Salem Studios, South Salem, New York for the U. S. Navy. Eleven of the ships represented by these models have been positively identified as Japanese and one other probably Japanese or as generic for a world-wide type. One each has been identified as American, British, French, and Swedish ships. Inside the case there is a code list that gives the type of ship represented by each number.

Model Nomenclature
Number Type Identification*

1 Passenger-New (two NYK passenger ships ASAMA MARU
stacks) and TATSUTA MARU of 1929-1930.
2 Passenger-New(one OSK passenger ships ARGENTINA MARU
stack) and BRAZIL MARU of 1939.
3 Passenger-Old Chargeurs Reunis passenger ships KERGUELEN,
ex-MEDUANA and JAMAIQUE, ex-MOSELLA of 1920-1921 and many similar ships.
4 Passenger-Coastal Dairen PEKING MARU and MANZYU
MARU of 1937.
5 Liberty Ship U. S. Maritime Commission EC2 “Liberty” ship.
6 Standard Freighter-Old DAIGEN MARU, a “Lake” type cargo ship
built in United States shipyards during WWI.
7 Modern Freighter (Split Type “B” British standard cargo ship of
Superstructure) WWII.
8 Old Three-Island Toyo cargo ship REIYO MARU of 1920.
Freighter
9 Engines Aft Cargo Mitsui ore carriers NAGISAN MARU,
NASUSAN MARU, NATISAN MARU
of 1931.
10 Combination Passenger NYK KASHIMA MARU and at least ten
Cargo-Old similar ships built between 1913 and 1922.
11 Combination Passenger Kawasaki KUNIKAWA MARU of 1937
Cargo-Modern and many similar ships.
12 Tanker-Modern Nippon Tanker TEIYO MARU of 1931.
13 Tanker-Old Mitsubishi SAN DIEGO MARU of 1928,
but similar to SAN CLEMENTE MARU of 1937.
14 Collier Swedish ore carrier SVEALAND of 1925.
Sister AMERIKALAND was a war loss in
1942. When built, these ships held the
world’s record for their type.
15 Trawler Deep Sea Trawler, Steam, 200-300 gross tons.
16 Whaler Japanese whale factory ship NISSHIN
MARU of 1936. Sistership NISSIN MARU No.2.
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*Identification of models of Japanese ships in this set was made using Navy Department, O.N.I. 208-J (Revised) Japanese Merchant Ships (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, n.d.), as follows: Model No.1, p.1; No.2, p.47; No.4, p.26; No.6, p.163 and other pages; No.8, p.220; No.9, p.269; No.10, p.29, No.11, p.73; No.12, p.276; No.13, p.287; No.16, p.293 and No.15, ONI 208-J Supplement 2. Identification of models 3 and 14 was made using E. C. Talbot-Booth, Merchant Ships 1949-1950 (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1949), as follows: Model No.3, p.82 dwg. H.12; No.14, p.33 dwg. H.13. For No.3 see also Arnold Kludas, Great Passenger Ships of the World Volume 2: 1913-1923 (Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens, 1976), pp.154-157.