''Dmitry Donskoy'' was a 5,061-ton German

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

which was built in 1943 as ''Eberhart Essberger''. Taken as a British war prize in 1945, she was renamed ''Empire Ayr''. She was allocated to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1946 and served until scrapped in 1974.

History

''Eberhart Essberger'' was built by Öresundsvarvet, Landskrona, and launched on 11 May 1943. She was completed on 20 January 1944. She was built for J T Essberger, Hamburg. ''Eberhart Essberger'' participated in Operation Hannibal in January 1945. She was taken as a war prize in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

in May 1945 and ownership passed to the British Ministry of War Transport. She operated under the management of F C Strick & Co Ltd. In 1946, 'Empire Ayr' brought the first consignment of of dates to reach

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

that year. Later that year, she was allocated to the Soviet Union and renamed ''Dimtry Donskoy'' (Дмитрий Донской). She was operated by the Baltic Shipping Co, Leningrad, and served until she was scrapped in the fourth quarter of 1974.

Official Number and code letters

Official Numbers were a forerunner to IMO Numbers. ''Empire Ayr'' had the UK

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats hav ...

180681 and used the Code Letters GNPS

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dmitry Donskoy Ships built in Landskrona World War II merchant ships of Germany Merchant ships of the Soviet Union 1943 ships Soviet Union–United Kingdom military relations Germany–Soviet Union military relations Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships