''Rodopi'' was a Hansa A Type cargo ship which was built as ''Setubal'' in 1944 by Lübecker Flenderwerke AG,

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

for Oldenburg Portugiesische Dampschiffs Rhederei,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. She was seized as a

prize of war A prize of war (also called spoils of war, bounty or booty) is a piece of enemy property or land seized by a belligerent party during or after a war or battle. This term was used nearly exclusively in terms of captured ships during the 18th and 1 ...

in 1945, passing to the

Ministry of War Transport The Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) was a department of the British Government formed early in the Second World War to control transportation policy and resources. It was formed by merging the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Transpor ...

and renamed ''Empire Gavel''. She was allocated to Greece in 1945 and was renamed ''Rodopi''. She was sold to Hellenic Lines in 1949. She was scrapped in 1974.

Description

The ship was long, with a beam of . She had a depth of , and a draught of . She was assessed as , , . The ship was propelled by a

compound steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure (HP) cylinder, then having given up heat ...

, which had two cylinders of and two cylinders of diameter by inches stroke. The engine was built by Rheinmetall-Börsig AG,

Görlitz Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...

. Rated at 1,200 IHP, it drove a single screw propeller and could propel the ship at .

History

''Setubal'' was a Hansa A Type cargo ship built in 1944 as

yard number The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.9 ...

404 by Lübecker Flenderwerke AG,

for Oldenburg Portugiesische Dampschiffs Rhederei,

. She was completed in January 1945. Her port of registry was Hamburg. In May 1945, ''Setubal'' was seized as a

,. She was passed to the

and was renamed ''Empire Gavel''. The

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. Later, with the introduction of ...

GJLZ and 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 ...

180646 were allocated. Her port of registry was

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and she was operated under the management of John Bruce & Co. Ltd,

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

. In 1947, ''Empire Gavel'' was allocated to Greece. The Greek government sold her in 1949 to Hellenic Lines and was renamed ''Rodopi''. She was one of two ex-German ships allocated to Hellenic Lines out of the five that they applied for - the other ship was the , Her port of registry was

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

. With their introduction in the 1960s, ''Rodopi'' was allocated the Lloyd's Register Number 5298444. She arrived at

Gemlik Gemlik is a municipality and district of Bursa Province, Turkey. Its area is 401 km2, and its population is 120,245 (2022). It is located in the east of the Gulf of Gemlik. It is approximately away from Bursa. In antiquity, Gemlik was the l ...

, Turkey on 5 March 1974 for scrapping by Centas Celik, and was scrapped in April.

References

External links

Photograph of ''Rodopi''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodopi 1944 ships Ships built in Lübeck World War II merchant ships of Germany Steamships of Germany Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Steamships of the United Kingdom Merchant ships of Greece Steamships of Greece