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.

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

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

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.
 * SL 167

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.
 * KMS 65

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.

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. Polycrown used the Code Letters LLKP.

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. She was capable of 11.5 kn.