That's something I wasn't sure about. Where could I find information on ships build before WWI. Most of the stuff I'm seeing is later than that.
Hmm, there were a few pictures of merchant ships in a book called "The Kaiser's Pirates," but I don't have the book handy, as I just loaned it to a friend. I have a few little 1:2400 scale generic merchant ships for WW1 from Viking Forge, but there are no pictures on the web site. I can tell you that some of these do have a stern shaped like the Reviresco "Minos."
I would suggest first a trip to any big public library nearby. I've been amazed by the books available on topics that I thought nobody would be interested in. My library has a nice nautical section with ridiculously technical books.
Another thing you could find at the library is movies to check out. The movie Lord Jim, based on the Joseph Conrad book, has great scenes of merchant ships before WW1.
I would also suggest searching the web for images of old merchant ships.
Also, if you can get to a big hobby store that sells a lot of models, there might be a model of an old merchant ship to look at. Ship modelers build more than just warships.
Warren