''Empire Austen'' was a 7,027 ton

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

which was built in 1942. She was renamed ''Frinton'' in 1949, ''Freecrest'' in 1951, ''Fairwater'' in 1955 and ''APJ Usha'' in 1961. She was scrapped in 1962.

History

''Empire Austen'' was built by Lithgows Ltd,

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as yard number 969. She was launched on 24 March 1942 and completed in May. She was built for the Ministry of War Transport and placed under the management of Honeyman & Co.

War service

''Empire Austen'' was a member of a number of convoys during the Second World War. ;KMS 22 Convoy KMS 22 departed

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on 9 August 1943 and arrived at

Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...

on 20 August. ''Empire Austen'' was on a voyage from Malta to Alexandria ;MKS 27 Convoy MKS 27 departed Gibraltar on 14 October 1943 and arrived at Liverpool on 28 October. ''Empire Austen'' was carrying a cargo of cotton and military stores bound for Manchester. ;OS 60 ''Empire Austen'' was listed as a member of Convoy OS 60 which departed Liverpool on 23 November 1943 and arrived at Freetown, Sierra Leone on 18 December. She did not sail with the convoy. ;KMS 35 Convoy KMS 35 departed Gibraltar on 22 December 1943 and arrived at Port Said on 1 January 1944. ''Empire Austen'' was bound for

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

Postwar

In 1946, management of ''Empire Austen'' passed to Counties Ship Management (CSM). In 1949 she was sold to Frinton Shipping Ltd and renamed ''Frinton'', operating under CSM's management. ''Frinton'' was sold to Crest Shipping Co Ltd in 1951 and renamed ''Freecrest''. She operated under the management of Ivanovich & Co Ltd, London. In 1955, ''Freecrest'' was sold to the International Navigation Corporation,

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

and renamed ''Fairwater'', operating under the management of Tidewater Commercial Co Inc,

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

. In 1961, ''Fairwater'' was sold to Surrendra (Overseas) Private Ltd, Bombay and renamed APD Usha. She was scrapped in Bombay in 1962.

Official number and code letters

Official Numbers were a forerunner to

IMO Numbers IMO or Imo may refer to: Biology and medicine * Irish Medical Organisation, the main organization for doctors in the Republic of Ireland * Intelligent Medical Objects, a privately held company specializing in medical vocabularies * Isomaltooligosa ...

. ''Empire Austen'' had the UK

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 ...

168983 and used 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 ...

BDTF

References

External links

Account
of damage to ''Freecrest'' in a hurricane in 1951. {{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Austen 1942 ships Ships built on the River Clyde Steamships of the United Kingdom Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Steamships of Liberia Merchant ships of Liberia Steamships of India Merchant ships of India