Awhile ago Lindberg re-issued one of their ship kits that they called a Q-ship. When I saw the box art, I thought it looked familiar. I looked through my references of Great Lakes ships, looking for ships of the so-called Poker fleet. Sure enough, that kit could easily be built as one of that fleet. Here is a picture of the Jack, one of the fleet;
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( oh oh! I cannot seem to post that picture. It appears in my draft, but then disappears when I actually post it. I will see what I can do to get the picture in). Okay, let' s try something else.
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Here is the box art of the Lindberg kit.
See the similarity? Here is the story of these ships, and why the Lindberg ship might represent both a ship used in WW1 and a ship of the poker fleet.
A number of ships were built on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence river to use the Welland canal and canals along the Seaway to link Great Lakes ports with the ocean commerce. These ships were known as canalers. During WW1 the US (and allies) needed lots of merchant shipping, and they issued contracts for any dockyard they could find to build ships, and ships built on the Great Lakes had to fit through the canals. Many were built to a standard plan drawn up or approved by the Administration. They overbuilt, and many just sat in port and rusted away. One or more of these ships may have been used as Q-ships- I could find no reference to such, however.
They were, however, sold to shipping companies for commercial use on the lakes, however. Probably the most famous were the ships of the Poker fleet. The Minnesota Atlantic Transit company bought at least four of these, and named them Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. Hence they were popularly known as the Poker Fleet.
The ships were all pretty much identical. I intend to build the kit as either the Ace or the Jack, the two ships I have pictures of. The kit lacks detail, and has a slight simplification of the superstructure. The front of the superstructure of the poker fleet ships has a slight curve, while the kit super structure is flat. I will have to modify that. Additionally, the railings of the kit are solid, to represent canvas covering. However, usually canvas covering shows some detail. I will look for PE in an approriate scale and show them uncovered.