''Chaksang'' was a Hansa A type cargo ship which was built in 1944 as ''Weserbrück'' by

Deutsche Werft Deutsche Werft (English: German Shipyard) was a shipbuilding company in Finkenwerder Rüschpark, Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 1918 by Albert Ballin and with Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH), ''Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft'' ( AEG) and ' ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany for

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...

. She was seized by the Allies in an incomplete state in 1945 and completed as ''Empire Fraser'' for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She was sold in 1946 to the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co Ltd and renamed ''Chaksang''. Suffering an on-board explosion and fire in September 1949, she sank at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. She was subsequently raised and scrapped in 1950.

Description

The ship was long, with a beam of . She had a depth of . She was assessed at . The ship was powered by a two-cylinder compound steam engine driving a single screw propeller. It could propel her at .

History

''Weserbrück'' was built in 1944 as yard number 587 by

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

for

. She was seized in 1945 in an incomplete state at

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and was completed as ''Empire Fraser'' for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). Her port of registry was

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The United Kingdom

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 ...

180843 and

Code Letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids and today also. Later, with the i ...

GDPV were allocated. She was operated under the management of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co Ltd. In November 1946, ''Empire Fraser'' transported a cargo of raw

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan to the United Kingdom. This was the first silk imported into the United Kingdom after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. ''Empire Fraser'' was sold to the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co Ltd in 1947 and was renamed ''Chaksang''. On 7 September 1949, there was an onboard explosion and fire whilst the ship was moored at

. No. 1 and No. 2 holds were affected, with flames reported to be high. Thirteen of her 66 crew were killed. She sank the next day. The ship had been delayed from sailing to

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

due to Typhoon Nelly and the cause of the explosion was sabotage. The ship was refloated on 22 March 1950. She was declared a

constructive total loss Marine insurance covers the physical loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport by which the property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and the final destination. Cargo insurance is the sub-branch o ...

and scrapped at Hong Kong.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaksang 1944 ships Ships built in Hamburg Ships sunk by non-combat internal explosions Steamships of Germany World War II merchant ships of Germany Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1949 Explosions in 1949