Empire Wansbeck 3,508gt Launched by Danziger Werft A .G.,in 1939 as Linz for Norddeutscher Loyd. 324ft x46ft.Engines;Oil.
The Linz was launched at Danzig in 1939 and completed by Odence Stalskibs Verft.She was one of a class of nine German fruit-carrying ships,the lead ship being the Saar,also of Norddeutscher Loyd,which was commissioned in 1935.Some of the nine vessels became wartime blockaded runners and two-including Linz-were used as mine layers by the German Navy.
Taken over,in prize,at Kielfjord in may 1945,the Linz was converted in Germany to a British troopship with accommodation for 721 persons plus another 238 in cabins and was renamed Empire Wansbeck for the M.O.T.,under Wilson Line management.She operated on the North Sea(Harwich/Hook of Holland) service for B.A.O.R.(British Army on the Rhine) personnel until 1961.Sold to Greece the following ,she became Esperos,a Mediterranean passenger ship owned by Kavounides Bros.,of Pireus.
In March 1980 she left Pireus,in tow,and was broken up in Spain in the following year.
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