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

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

for Oldenburg Portugiesische Dampschiffs Rhederei,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. She was seized as a

prize of war A prize of war is a piece of enemy property or land seized by a belligerent party during or after a war or battle, typically at sea. This term was used nearly exclusively in terms of captured ships during the 18th and 19th centuries. Basis in inte ...

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 h ...

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

Görlitz Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and is the largest town in Upper Lusa ...

. Rated at 1,200

IHP Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

, 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 __NOTOC__ M ...

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 and today also. Later, with the i ...

GJLZ and United Kingdom

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their 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 have sometimes ...

180646 were allocated. Her port of registry was

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

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

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

. 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 ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) 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 Sar ...

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

Gemlik Gemlik is a town and center of the Gemlik District of Bursa Province. It is located in the east of the Gulf of Gemlik. It is approximately away from Bursa. In antiquity, Gemlik was the location of the ancient Greek town of Cius. Gemlik is an ...

, 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 Germany 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