''Kirovograd'' (russian: Кировоград) was a

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 ...

that was built in 1929 as ''Hercules'' by

AG Weser Aktien-Gesellschaft „Weser" (abbreviated A.G. „Weser”) was one of the major German shipbuilding companies, located at the Weser River in Bremen. Founded in 1872 it was finally closed in 1983. All together, A.G. „Weser" built about 1,400 ...

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 for Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Neptun. She was seized by the British in May 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed ''Empire Dovey''. In 1946, she was transferred 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 ...

under the terms of the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

and renamed ''Kirovograd''. She served until 1968, when she was scrapped.

Description

The ship was built in 1929 by

. The ship was long, with a beam of . She was assessed at , . (Enter GDYV or Empire Dovey in relevant search box) The ship was propelled by a

triple expansion 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 he ...

History

''Hercules'' was built in 1929 for Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Neptun,

. In 1940, she was requisitioned by the

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

, returning to Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Neptun later that year. ''Hercules'' was requisitioned again in 1941 and returned to her owners again in 1942. In May 1945, she was seized by the Allies at

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark. On 23 June she was declared a prize of war, along with her cargo, which included 1½ tons of grease, which was sold by public tender in January 1946. ''Hercules'' was passed to the MoWT and renamed ''Empire Dovey''. The 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 ...

180601 and Code Letters GDYV 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 ...

. In February 1946, ''Empire Dovey'' was transferred to the

under the terms of the

. She was renamed ''Kirovograd''. On 11 July 1960, she collided with the motor

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

''Gladys'' in the

Medway Estuary Medway Estuary and Marshes is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest which stretches along the banks of the River Medway between Gillingham and Sheerness in Kent. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, a Ramsar international ...

off the Isle of Grain,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, United Kingdom. The barge sank. ''Kirovograd'' served until September 1968, when she was scrapped in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirovograd 1929 ships Ships built in Bremen (state) Steamships of Germany Merchant ships of Germany World War II merchant ships of Germany Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Steamships of the Soviet Union Merchant ships of the Soviet Union Maritime incidents in 1960