''Salamanca'' was a Hansa A Type cargo ship which was built as ''Äolus'' in 1944 by J Cockerill SA,

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; ) is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's popula ...

, Belgium for Netptun Line,

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 Witham''. She was sold to Hong Kong in 1948 and was renamed ''Choysang''. A further sale in 1861 saw her renamed ''Milford''. She was sold to Panama in 1967 and was renamed ''Salamanca''. She was scrapped in 1971.

Description

The ship was long, with a beam of . She had a depth 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 ...

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

History

''Äolus'' was a Hansa A Type cargo ship built in 1943 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 ...

702 by J Cockerill SA,

, Belgium for Dampfschifffahrts Gesellschaft Neptun,

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

. She was launched on 21 October 1943 and completed in May 1944. Her port of registry was Bremen. On 22 May May 1945, ''Äolus'' was seized as a

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 ...

,. She was passed to the

and was renamed ''Empire Witham''. 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 ...

GDQV 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 ...

180846 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 the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co. Ltd,

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. In 1948, ''Empire Witham'' was sold to the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co.,

and was renamed ''Choysang''. She was sold to Hemisphere Shipping Co., Hong Kong in 1961 and was renamed ''Milford''. With their introduction in the 1960s, ''Milford'' was allocated the Lloyd's Register Number 0523515. In 1967, ''Milford'' was sold to the Continental Navigation Co., Panama and was renamed ''Salamanca''. Damaged in August 1967, she arrived at Hong Kong on 22 March 1969 for scrapping by the Lee Sing Co. ''Salamanca'' was scrapped in May 1969.

References

External links

Photograph of ''Empire Witham''.Photograph of ''Milford''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salamanca 1943 ships Ships built in Belgium 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 Hong Kong Steamships of Hong Kong Merchant ships of Panama Steamships of Panama