Typical Example of Inter-war European Cargo Ship Design

French Cargo Vessel Golo

Designers Added Armaments as War Loomed

The years between World War I and World War II were an interesting time in merchant ship design. Steel steamships had finally supplanted sailing ships, and naval architects were shaking off the old “knowns” of ship design and trying to find the limits of the new technologies with which they were working. The result was a fleet of ships featuring the beautiful lines of the bygone era powered by the most modern propulsion methods.

Toward the end of this period, as war loomed on the continent, designers began adding defensive armaments to these ships in a precursor of later U.S.-built “Liberty” and “Victory” ships. Our Free Ship Plans of Golo present a typical example of these late inter-war cargo vessels that is a small enough size that would make a nice scratch-built radio-controlled ship model.

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