In the 1994/4 issue there was a short article and a set of drawings of the WW1 military transport ships –known collectively as the Hog Islanders –The article was written and illustrated by Dan H Jones. A condensation thereof below:
 

A shortage of merchant shipping was one of the factors for America remaining neutral for so long. Reasoning was that if America could not transport its own men and material to the battlefield, then America could not fight. Addressing this problem, Congress passed the Federal Shipping Act of 1916. The act provided for the creation of a new public agency, The United States Shipping Board, to "create a merchant marine adequate for the United States". The Shipping Board was given wide reaching powers, and more importantly, was funded by $50,000,000 to implement its programs. A corporation using both public and private funds was formed. The Emergency Fleet Corp. found that existing American yards were not large or numerous enough to meet the needs so contracts were let to Japan and China. More importantly, contracts were entered into with private companies to form new yards, called "Agency Yards" to expand the building capability. These would be assembly yards, building prefabricated ships, rather than using traditional methods. 

One such company, the American International Corp. started by purchasing the New York Shipbuilding Company of Camden, New Jersey. Plans to expand the yard could only go so far due to the limits of available land. Across the Delaware River lies the city of Philadelphia. A little known island, swampy and barren apart from a single abandoned shack, near Philadelphia, called Hog Island, was deemed suitable and was easy to acquire. It faced the Delaware River, offered over two miles of shoreline and the river was deep enough to permit launchings. Soon the island was transformed with a connecting railroad and marshaling yards, thirty slipways, seven fitting out wet docks, a forest of cranes and gantries and a holding basin. 

Building the yards and setting up the assembly methods presented tremendous problems for the company and the Shipping Board. Nothing on this scale had ever before been attempted. The concept of building ships in parts and assembling them at a central location was revolutionary, the first time this had been done. There were delays and the costs were enormous. In spite of the coldest winter on record construction proceeded and the first keel of a Type A was laid on February 6, 1918. The first completed hull, the USS Quistconck, was christened on August 5, 1918. 

Two basic designs were to be fabricated at the yard, both to be collectively known as "Hog Islanders". The Type A design was a cargo carrier and the Type B was designed to transport troops. Both were simple designs geared toward mass production and aesthetic considerations were ignored. The hulls had no sheer and were symmetrical from the sides, resulting in some of the uglier ships ever to sail the seas. They were ugly but they were well built and had a good performance in terms of capacity and speed. All were oil fired and were very modern in design except for their silhouette. The Type B in particular was said to be designed with camouflage in mind because with their lack of sheer, high stern, and the evenly balanced superstructure, submarines would have trouble telling which direction they were going. 

The Hog Island contract called for 180 ships but with the end of the war, only 122 were completed. The last was completed in January 21, 1921. The Shipping Board now found itself in the shipping business. Over a third of the modern oil fired vessels in it's fleet were Hog Islanders and at first the Board was reluctant to sell them. Private operators petitioned successfully to force sale of these desirable hulls but when they were made available it was at inflated prices. In the postwar boom many owners paid the asking price which turned a nice profit for the Emergency Shipbuilding Corporation. With the shipping slump of 1921 everything changed. Hog Islanders were still at their original prices which then represented three times the market rate. Although the Shipping Board did not reduce their prices nor accept proposals of rebates, they did allow strapped owners to return ships to Shipping Board control. Most of the early sales reverted back to Government ownership. In the interest of helping the development of the American Merchant Marine a subsidy scheme was then created whereby an owner could bid on an established route and be compensated by Federal funds and be allowed a very reasonable purchase price for a Hog Islander hull. Many new companies were thus created to operate what would have been otherwise unprofitable routes. Most of the established shipping companies also took advantage of this scheme and the Hog Island type became a very important element in the between the wars merchant marine. 

Most of the ships were still around in WW II and did the job they were designed for one war earlier. The hospital ship USS Samaritan was unmistakably a Hog Islander, her silhouette was unaltered apart from her markings. Others served in their intended roles as cargo and troop transports. 
 

My good intentions were overtaken by the appearance of a Hog Islander resin kit in 1/700, manufactured by Battlefleet Models--who specialize in the off-beat subjects.

I obtained a kit, using copious drawings and plans set to work—it would be a quick build- a simple little freighter with no guns…..Ha!
 

•  US Navy Historical Center AK-13 page 
•  Navsource.org AK-13 page 

After placing the big ship alongside the pier it all looked rather sparse-so the freight train was built and placed into position . Prior to this I had hollowed out the 2-8-0 locomotives cab, installed window frames of ex –radar PE, thinned down the crank and connecting rods, drilled out the smokestack and raised the chassis level to reduce the ‘daylight’ below the boiler.

Which then led on to the next mini-feature…-that of the refueling operation being prepared by hoisting the heavy hoses over the Hog Islanders deck edge, but in this instance using the powerful cargo boom-arm of the big ship. The hoses themselves were made of thin 0.5mm solder this medium allows the tight radii to be formed without distortion and is ideal for the purpose .

The garbage vessel was a fascinating vessel both to understand its ( non-ecofriendly!!) functions as well as the building of. On completion of these I was feeling suitably encouraged-I could see light at the end of the tunnel. Fun time! -planning the layout and disposition of the ships.

I added an ex-crane barge from LCP—to be used as a store and mooring pontoon-to which a small tug in civilian colors has made fast. Gangplank is a strip of brass.

I tried out the( garish!) preprinted 1/700 PE figures from Eduard for the first time. These were given first a washing with light grey to tone down the colors, had caps and shoes painted in and then given another washing of very dark grey to give the some shadows and depth. I de-linaeted some of the figures with a sharp pencil to give a credible belt line. I mixed and matched with some GMM figures also to give a variety in poses.

A fair and well illustrated review of the Hog islander kit can be found here by clicking the image on the right.