MV Polycrown

Polycrown was a 7,297 GRT cargo ship which was built by William Doxford & Sons, Sunderland in 1943 as Empire Beauty. Postwar she was sold into merchant service as Polycrown and saw further service as Ioannis Aspiotis and Laurel before she was scrapped in 1969.

History
Class and type: Cargo ship
Name:
  • Empire Beauty (1943-46)
  • Polycrown (1946-62)
  • Ioannis Aspiotis (1962-68)
  • Laurel (1968-69)
Owner:
  • Ministry of War Transport (1943-46)
  • Einar Rasmussen (1946-62)
  • Lamda Shipping Enterprises Corporation (1962-68)
  • Laurel Shipping Co Ltd (1968)
Operator:
  • Stephens, Sutton Ltd (1943-46)
  • Kristiansands Tankrederi A/S (1946-62)
  • Lamda Shipping Enterprises Corporation (1962-68)
  • Laurel Shipping Co Ltd (1968)
Port of registry:
  • Sunderland (1943-46)
  • Kristiansand (1946-62)
  • Beirut (1962-68)
  • Famagusta (1968)
Builder: William Doxford & Sons, Sunderland
Launched: 8 April 1943
Completed: July 1943
Identification:
  • UK Official Number 169119 (1943-46)
  • Code Letters BFJG (1943-46)
  • Code Letters LLKP (1946-62)
Fate: Scrapped 1969
General characteristics
Tonnage:
Length: 428 ft 8 in (130.66 m)
Beam: 56 ft 5 in (17.20 m)
Depth: 35 ft 5 in (10.80 m)
Propulsion: One SCSA oil engine, 516 hp (385 kW)
Speed: 10 knots (19 km/h)
Armament: 4" gun, 6 machine guns, net defence (Empire Beauty)

Description

Empire Beauty was built by William Doxford & Sons, Sunderland.[1] She was yard number 703.[2] Empire Beauty was launched on 8 April 1943 and completed in July that year. She had a GRT of 7,297,[1] NRT of 4,936 and DWT of 10,270.[3]

Career

Empire Beauty was built for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and placed under the management of Stephens, Sutton Ltd.[4] Empire Beauty was a member of a number of convoys during the Second World War.

SL 167

Convoy SL 167 sailed from Freetown, Sierra Leone on 9 August 1944 and arrived at Liverpool on 29 October 1944. Empire Beauty was carrying a cargo of Linseed.[5]

KMS 65

Convoy KMS 65 sailed from Liverpool on 4 October 1944 and arrived at Gibraltar on 11 October 1944. Empire Beauty was carrying a cargo of stores and was bound for Port Said, Egypt, Basra, Iraq and Bandar Mashur, Iran.[6]

In June 1946, Empire Beauty was sold to Einar Rasmussen, Kristiansand, Norway and renamed Polycrown. She was placed under the management of Kristiansands Tankrederi A/S. In 1962, Polycrown was sold to Lamda Shipping Enterprises Corporation, Beirut, Lebanon and renamed Ioannis Aspiotis. In 1968, Ioannis Aspiotis was sold to Laurel Shipping Co Ltd, Famagusta, Cyprus and renamed Laurel. Later that year she was sold to shipbreakers at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where she arrived for scrapping on 23 December 1968.[3]

Official Numbers and Code Letters

Official numbers were a forerunner to IMO Numbers. Empire Beauty had the UK Official Number 169119 and used the Code Letters BFJG.[4] Polycrown used the Code Letters LLKP.[3]

Propulsion

The ship was propelled by a 3-cylinder SCSA oil engine which had cylinders of 23​5⁄8 in (60 cm) diameter by 91​5⁄16 in (232 cm) stroke. It was built by William Doxford & Sons.[4] She was capable of 11.5 knots (21.3 km/h).[3]

gollark: I am not convinced that it's something you're actually likely to "learn from" given that it's fairly effective brain poison.
gollark: Somewhat bad, in my IMO opinion.
gollark: It's actually quaternionic.
gollark: To some extent I guess you could ship worse/nonexistent versions of some machinery and assemble it there, but a lot would be interdependent so I don't know how much. And you'd probably need somewhat better computers to run something to manage the resulting somewhat more complex system, which means more difficulty.
gollark: Probably at least 3 hard. Usefully extracting the many ores and such you want from things, and then processing them into usable materials probably involves a ton of different processes you have to ship on the space probe. Then you have to convert them into every different part you might need, meaning yet more machinery. And you have to do this with whatever possibly poor quality resources you find, automatically with no human to fix issues, accurately enough to reach whatever tolerances all the stuff needs, and have it stand up to damage on route.

References
  1. Mitchell, W H, and Sawyer, L A (1995). The Empire Ships. London, New York, Hamburg, Hong Kong: Lloyd's of London Press Ltd. ISBN 1-85044-275-4.
  2. "1169119". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  3. "M/S Polycrown" (in Norwegian). Sjøhistorie. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  4. "LLOYD'S REGISTER, NAVIRES A VAPEUR ET A MOTEURS" (PDF). Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  5. "Convoy SL.167". Convoyweb. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  6. "Convoy OS.91/KMS.65". Convoyweb. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
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