Scale: 1:100. There were 126 vessels of the first standard design ‘Freedom’, launched in the mid-1960s and they proved to be very reliable and profitable carriers. Subsequent standard designs built in Japan such as the ‘Fortune’, ‘Freedom Mk II’ (circa 1978), and ‘Friendship’ derivatives have been equally successful, proving themselves the natural successors to the ageing Liberty ships of the Second World War vintage.

This model was made for the shipbuilder, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., to promote the ‘Mark II’ design to prospective clients. It shows clearly the ship’s most sellable feature, the horizontal slewing cranes that enabled it to load and unload cargo independent of dockyard facilities. This meant that the ‘Freedom Mk II’ was free to trade almost anywhere in the world – and it still does – from the Great Lakes of the United States to the small islands of Indonesia. A plaque accompanying the model’s original display case lists the vessel’s dimensions and other information. The ship class is 440 metres in length, 17,200 GRT (gross registered tons) and has a speed of just over 14 knots.