''Volochaevsk'' (russian: Волочаевск - rendered as Воʌочаевск on the ship using the alternative Cyrillic el) was a Hansa A Type cargo ship which was built as ''Weserwald'' in 1943 by

Deutsche Werft Deutsche Werft (English: German Shipyard) was a shipbuilding company in Finkenwerder Rüschpark, Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 1918 by Albert Ballin and with Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH), ''Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft'' ( AEG) and ' ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

for Norddeutsche Lloyd, Hamburg. 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 and renamed ''Empire Galveston''. She was allocated to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1946 and was renamed ''Volochaevsk''. She served until 1973, when she was scrapped.

Description

The ship was long, with a beam of . She had a depth of , and a draught of . She was assessed as , , . She had a capacity of of grain. The ship was propelled by a compound steam engine, which had two cylinders of and two cylinders of diameter by 90 cm stroke. The engine was built by Deutsche Werft. Rated at 1,200 IHP, it drove a single screw propeller and could propel the ship at .

History

''Weserwald'' was a Hansa A Type cargo ship built in 1943 as

yard number __NOTOC__ M ...

430 by

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

for

Hansa Line DDG Hansa, short for Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa (German Steamship Company Hansa; in modern orthography, Deutsche Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa) was a major German shipping company specialising in heavy freight and schedul ...

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, Germany. She was launched on 20 November 1943 and completed on 27 January 1944. Her port of registry was Hamburg. In May 1945, ''Weserwald'' was seized as a

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...

. She was passed to the Ministry of War Transport and was renamed ''Empire Galveston''. 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 ...

GYMW 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 ...

180874 were allocated. Her port of registry was

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and she was operated under the management of Fred Nicholls & Son. In 1946,''Empire Galveston'' was allocated to the

and was renamed ''Volochaevsk''. Her port of registry was

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

and the Code Letters UKEJ were allocated. She was operated under the management of the Estonian Shipping Company. With their introduction in the 1960s, She was allocated the

IMO Number The IMO number of the International Maritime Organization is a generic term covering two distinct meanings. The IMO ship identification number, is a type of hull number used as a unique ship identifier, and the IMO company and registered owner ...

5383392. ''Volochaevsk'' served until 1973, when she was scrapped in the Soviet Union.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volochaevsk 1943 ships Ships built in Hamburg 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 the Soviet Union Steamships of the Soviet Union