Due to British merchant shipping high losses, at the end of 1916 a Shipping Controller was appointed by the British Government with wide powers to provide and maintain an effective supply of shipping. An extensive shipbuilding programme was started and it was decided that ships would be of a simple design and standardised as far as possible with hulls and engines. All these vessels were given names prefixed with WAR. After the Armistice in 1918, many of the standard ships being built were sold to shipping companies and completed to their owners specifications. The surviving WWI standard C cargo ships under Japanese flag in the Pacific War included SHOEI MARU (ex-WAR OASIS) requisitioned by the IJN and converted to an auxiliary transport, bombed by USAAF aircraft in Dec 43; MOMOHA MARU (ex-WAR ISLAND) requisitioned by the IJA as transport No. 663, torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine in Mar 43; YASUKUNI MARU ex-WAR MIST) requisitioned by the IJA as transport No. 137, torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine in Jan 44; SEITAI MARU (ex-WAR PALACE) under civilian control, torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine in Aug 43; TENZAN MARU (ex-WAR TOLKA) under civilian control, lost after a collision with IJN requisitioned cargo ship (B-AK) KOBE MARU in Nov 42; SATSUMA MARU (ex-WAR BEACH) requisitioned by the IJA as transport No. 752, torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine in Feb 44; SEIKAI MARU (ex-WAR BEACON) under civilian control, torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine in Aug 42; KIRIHA MARU (ex-WAR BREEZE) requisitioned by the IJA as transport No. 683, torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine in Mar 43; DAISHU MARU (ex-WAR BROSNA) under civilian control, torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine in Nov 43 and NIKKO MARU (ex-WAR SPHERE) requisitioned by the IJN as a general requisitioned transport (B-AK) mined and sunk in Jul 44.
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