Manticos was a heavy lift steamship that William Gray & Company built in West Hartlepool in 1944 as Empire Barbados for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT).

Between the beginning of 1944 and autumn of 1945, William Gray & Co Ltd at West Hartlepool built a set of ten ships for the MoWT to a standard design of "Scandinavian type cargo ship" called the Empire Malta class.

The MoWT initially contracted the Joseph Constantine Steamship Line Ltd to manage Empire Barbados.

[7] In 1960 Compagnia Navigazione Zannis acquired Berylstone, renamed her Manticos, registered her in Beirut in Lebanon,[8] and contracted A Halcoussis & Co to manage her.

[1] On 8 October 1963, Manticos was en route from Libreville, Gabon bound for the Mediterranean with a cargo of logs when she developed a leak.