Dmitry Donskoy was a 5,061-ton German cargo ship

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

 which was built in 1943 as Eberhart Essberger. Taken as a British war prize

Prize (law)

Prize is a term used in admiralty law to refer to equipment, vehicles, vessels, and cargo captured during armed conflict. The most common use of prize in this sense is the capture of an enemy ship and its cargo as a prize of war. In the past, it was common that the capturing force would be allotted...

 in 1945, she was renamed Empire Ayr. She was allocated to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in 1946 and served until scrapped in 1974.

History

Eberhart Essberger was built by Öresunds Varve A/B, Landskrona

Landskrona

Landskrona is a locality and the seat of Landskrona Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 28,670 inhabitants in 2005.-History:The city of Landskrona was founded at the location of Scania's best natural harbour, as a means of King Eric of Pomerania's anti-Hanseatic policy, intended to compete...

, and launched on 11 May 1943. She was completed on 20 January 1944. She was built for J T Essberger, Hamburg. Eberhart Essberger participated in Operation Hannibal

Operation Hannibal

Operation Hannibal was a German military operation involving the evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from Courland, East Prussia, and the Polish Corridor from mid-January to May, 1945 as the Red Army advanced during the East Prussian and East Pomeranian Offensives and subsidiary...

 in January 1945. She was taken as a war prize in Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 in May 1945 and ownership passed to the British Ministry of War Transport. She operated under the management of F C Strick & Co Ltd. In 1946, 'Empire Ayr' brought the first consignment of 4000 long tons (4,064.2 t) of dates to reach Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 that year. Later that year, she was allocated to the Soviet Union and renamed Dimtry Donskoy (Дмитря Донскоя). She was operated by the Baltic Shipping Co, Leningrad, and served until she was scrapped in the fourth quarter of 1974.

Official number and code letters

Official Numbers were a forerunner to IMO Numbers

IMO ship identification number

The IMO ship identification number is made of the three letters "IMO" followed by the seven-digit number assigned to all ships by IHS Fairplay when constructed. This is a unique seven digit number that is assigned to propelled, sea-going merchant ships of 100 GT and above...

.

Empire Ayr had the UK Official Number 180681 and used the Code Letters

Code letters

Code letters were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids. Later, with the introduction of radio, code letters were also used as radio callsigns.-History:...

GNPS