SS Manganese

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SS Manganese was a small cargo coaster built in 1925 in Hamburg, Germany, as Wiedau for the Bugsier Line. It weighed about 964 gross tons, was roughly 221 feet long, and was powered by a triple-expansion steam engine that could reach about 10 knots. In May 1945, after World War II, the ship was seized by the Allies and renamed Empire Contract under the Ministry of War Transport. Later in 1945 it was given to Greece and renamed Herakleion. In 1948 it entered merchant service as Laconia with the Lakoniki Steamship Navigation Co. The vessel changed hands several times: sold to Hellenic Levant Line (1954–64), then to J Alexatos (1965), and finally to the Sinai Manganese Co of Egypt (1965–93) when it was renamed Manganese. Its port of registry moved from Hamburg to London and Antwerp, and later to Egyptian ports after 1965. The ship disappeared from Lloyd’s Register in 1993 and was scrapped soon afterward.