List of Empire Ships (D) - Suffix Beginning With D - Empire Defender

Empire Defender was a 5,649 GRT cargo ship which was built by J C Tecklenborg AG, Wesermünde. Launched in 1910 as Freienfels Seized in by UK 1914 at Calcutta, India. To the Admiralty, then transferred in 1920 to the Secretary of State for India. Sold in 1925 to Rethymnis & Pnevmaticos, Greece and renamed Hadiotis. Sold in 1928 to Achille Lauro & Co, Naples, Italy. and renamed Felce. Seized on 11 June 1940 at Haifa, Palestine. To MoWT and renamed Empire Defender. Ordered to sail from Glasgow to Malta laden with ammunition late in 1941. On 20 October 1941, 60 lascar sailors refused to sail, claiming that the vessel was cursed and would be sunk before the next new moon. The authorities were unable to persuade them to sail by either threats or inducements. An equivalent number of white sailors were procured with a payment of £10 in cash each to accept the lascar accommodation. The ship had been repainted with a black hull, white topsides and a buff funnel, contrary to wartime regulations. All armament had been removed in an effort to make the ship appear as though it belonged to a neutral country. On sailing she collided with two ships. She was in a convoy until off the Spanish coast, when she left and headed to Malta. The flag of whichever nation's waters she was in at the time was painted on her hull, thus she was passed off as a French, Spanish and Italian ship. On 14 November 1941, she was attacked by an enemy aircraft which dropped an aerial torpedo. Empire Defender was set on fire and her crew abandoned her. They had only just done this when she blew up and sank 18 nautical miles (33 km) south of the Galite Islands, Tunisia.