Empire Defender was a 5,649 GRT cargo steamship that was built in 1910 as Freienfels by Joh.

[2] She was requisitioned by the Admiralty and operated under the management of Grahams & Co Ltd.[4] Her port of registry was changed to London and the code letters JLGB were allocated.

On 2 March 1925, questions were asked in Parliament by Joseph Kenworthy, MP about the profitability and proposed sale of the ships to Greece, and what arrangements had been made for the continued employment of her British crew.

In reply, Earl Winterton, then Under-Secretary of State for India, said that the five ships had made in excess of £1.7 million profit.

She would be available for inspection at Dunquerque, France from 6–18 June, and would then depart for Falmouth, Cornwall where she was to be laid up pending sale.

In 1927, she was sold to Kassos Steam Navigation Co. Ltd, Syra and placed under the management of Pnevmaticos, Rethymnis & Yannaghas.

In September 1928, Hadiotis was sold to Achille Lauro fu Giochine & Co, Naples, Italy and was renamed Felce.

She was placed under the management of the City Line Ltd.[2] She was assessed as 5,649 GRT,[1] and would have regained her previous official number 139043.

She departed from the Hampton Roads on 10 August for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, arriving four days later.

[10] Empire Defender was ordered to sail from Glasgow to Malta laden with ammunition,[1] as part of Operation Astrologer.

[16] On 20 October 1941, sixty lascar sailors refused to sail, claiming that the vessel was cursed and would be sunk before the next new moon.

An equivalent number of white sailors were procured with a payment of £10 in cash each to accept the lascar accommodation.

The ship had been repainted with a black hull, white topsides and a buff funnel, contrary to wartime regulations.

The flag of whichever nation's waters she was in at the time was painted on her hull, thus she was passed off as a French, Spanish and Italian ship.

[1] Operation Astrologer had probably been compromised following the loss of the merchantman Parracombe on 2 May 1941 and the subsequent interrogation of her crew who were interned in France.

They had only just done this when she blew up and sank 18 nautical miles (33 km) south of the Galite Islands, Tunisia.

[19] Those lost on Empire Defender are commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial, London.