Ilse L.-M. Russ was built in 1926 for Schiffart und Assekuranz
GmbH. She was operated under the management of Ernst Russ,
Hamburg. She was allocated the
Code Letters RFVK. In 1936,
Ilse L.-M. Russ was one of 20 ships
chartered to transport timber from
Leningrad,
Soviet Union to Germany. In 1940,
Ilse L.-M. Russ was one of the ships that was to have taken part in
Operation Herbstreise. In May 1945,
Ilse L.-M. Russ was seized by the Allies at
Kiel. She was passed to the MoWT and renamed
Empire Conqueror. She was placed under the management of William S Scott & Co Ltd. Her port of registry was changed to
London. The
Code Letters GMXN and United Kingdom
Official Number 180700 were allocated. In 1946,
Empire Conqueror was transferred to the
Norwegian Government and was renamed
Ekornes. Her port of registry was changed to
Oslo and the Code Letter LLTS were allocated. In 1947, she was sold to Tetlies Rederi AS,
Trondheim and renamed
Elfrida. She was operated under the management of Bjarne Tetlie. On 8 December 1959,
Elfrida was on a voyage from
Arkhangelsk,
Soviet Union to a
Danish port with a cargo of
timber, when a leak developed in the engine room. The weather at the time was stormy. A distress call was issued when the ship was at . The ship was discovered capsized with the loss of all 20 crew. She sank on 9 December some off
Stavanger. ==References==