I think Mark Partis and Aquitania have the story straight - with one tiny clarification. John Steel - a truly remarkable artist and, it seems, a most interesting, if unhappy, man - did the box art for the issue of the C-3 freighter kit as the U.S.S.
Burleigh, in 1964. The original box art for the
Hawaiian Pilot, as it appeared in 1956, was by Scott Eidson.
My source here, as usual, is Dr. Graham's
Remembering Revell Model Kits. That wonderful volume contains photos - in color - of all the boxes in question. They're rather interesting.
The original (1956)
Hawaiian Pilot painting shows the ship steaming past Diamond Head in a blue sea under a blue sky, with a palm tree and some colorful tropical flowers in the left foreground. In the "Merchant Fleet Gift Set" artwork, also by Mr. Eidson, the scene has changed to San Francisco (the Golden Gate Bridge is in the background). The
Hawaiian Pilot and
Jay L. Hanna are alongside each other in a slip; the freighter has her starboard anchor out, and the tanker appears to be getting under way. The tug
Long Beach is steaming past the tanker's bow. What's especially interesting about this painting is that the view of the
Hawaiian Pilot is identical, in terms of perspective, color, and detail, to the one on the original 1956 box. It looks like Mr. Eidson traced, or otherwise copied, his original painting, making only a few changes: the removal of the ship's wake, the addition of the "up-and-down" anchor chain - and the presence of the
Jay L. Hanna's masts in the foreground. Otherwise the
Hawaiian Pilot is identical in the two pictures. Even the flags seem to be identically rippled.
In both cases the stack is yellow, with a black (or maybe dark blue) M. The funnel cap seems to be the same color. I don't know whether that's right or not . I do have a vague recollection that those were the Matson line colors in the fifties, but I could well be mistaken.
The picture on the box of the
Dr. Lykes is a black-and-white photo of the model, posed in a background that looks like it might be real water (with, perhaps, some retouching). In Dr. Graham's book it's shown adjacent to the box of the S.S.
Argentina - a reissue of the S.S.
Brasil kit that came out in the same year (1962). The picture on the
Argentina box is a black-and-white photo of the real ship. I wonder how many purchasers noticed the distinction.
The
Burleigh painting (1964) is vintage John Steel: grey ship, amost black sea, and rather dull blue sky. The ship is shown from a dramatic angle, low off the port bow. A burning plane has just flown through the upper left corner, leaving a trail of smoke. The overall effect of the picture, unfortunately, has been sabotaged by the marketing department. By this time Revell apparently had given up on the "boxtop painting you can frame!" approach that it had used with Steel's earlier "Picture Fleet" works. This one has a big red banner bearing the words "Revell models are FUN!" plastered across the upper righthand corner. No wonder Steel quit working for Revell.
I think those are the only boxes in which the kit appeared - except for the new German one. I haven't run across one of those yet; it's on my shopping list for the next time I get to a well-stocked hobby shop. Unfortunately the closest one is over a hundred miles away.
I just took a look at the Revell Germany website. The
Hawaiian Pilot picture shown there appears (though it's too small for me to examine in real detail, at least on my monitor) to be a modified copy of the original Eidson painting
in reverse. Both Eidson paintings showed the ship from the starboard side; the German version shows the port side. The venue still seems to be San Francisco, but from a decidedly different angle. (I
think that's supposed to be the Bay Bridge, running from Frisco to Oakland, in the right background.) Interestingly, the good old tug
Long Beach seems to have just crossed the
Hawaiian Pilot's bow - and the bow of another ship, which could conceivably be the
Hanna, is sticking into the right forground. Since I haven't gotten my hands on the German kit yet, I have no idea whether this picture actually ended up on the box. On the basis of Aquitania's post, it sounds like it didn't.
Fascinating stuff.