Update #1 - Merchant M12B
I spent much of yesterday afternoon creating skins for M12B - a modern merchant with a long bridge deck. This style of merchant was designed with a midships island that extended beyond the superstructure. It was often used for high volume, low density cargoes like grain, cotton, and coal, as the increased hull space was a major asset. Most were purpose-built but a few were converted from traditional merchant ships. They were fairly common in the British, Dutch, Greek, and Japanese merchant navies - to my knowledge they were very rare in the US fleet.
The design became obsolete after the war, due to the increased number of purpose-built bulk carriers available to shippers.
I have made at least four types of this ship since 2006. I'd like it more if I could imitate the "swayback" look that a lot of them had in real life, but that often causes texturing problems and increases the poly count.
This model was inspired by the "SS Hartlebury", built in 1934. Before the war broke out she and her fleetmates connected Liverpool and London with ports in the Americas and East Africa. By 1942 she had been armed with antisubmarine guns on the bow and stern, along with several light AA weapons. In late June of 1942 she joined Convoy PQ-17, bound for the Soviet Union. She escaped the initial Luftwaffe attacks undamaged but was forced to make for Archangel at her best speed after the convoy was ordered to scatter. She was intercepted by U-335 on 7 July and sunk with heavy loss of life. Despite assistance from U-335's crew only 20 men survived. 38 crewmembers were killed, including the master, who died of head injuries about a year after the incident.
(from uboat.net)
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/1903.html