The ship was 514feet long overall (514feet between perpendiculars), with a beam of 73feet. It had a depth of 35feet and a draught of 28feet. It was assessed at, .[4]
The ship was powered by a four-stroke Single Cycle Single Acting diesel engine which had eight cylinders of 28.75inches bore by 63inches stroke. The engine was built by Gebroeders Stork &Co, N.V., Hengelo, Overijssel.[4] It drove a single screw propeller. Rated at 3700bhp, the engine could propel the ship at 12kn.[5]
Papendrecht was built as a tanker by the Rotterdam Droogdock Maatschappij, Rotterdam, South Holland for Van Ommeren's Scheepsvaart Maatschappij, Rotterdam. Yard number 220, it was laid down on 18 April 1939. The ship was launched on 19 April 1940.[5] It was seized in May by the Kriegsmarine and renamed Lothringen.[6] Completion was on 9 December 1940. The ship's port of registry was Hamburg.[5]
Lothringen had a crew of 90, of which 45 were Kriegsmarine sailors. The rest were 35 sailors of the German mercantile marine. The senior naval officer aboard was the ship's doctor.[2]
The sailors joined the Lothringen at Rotterdam. The guns were mounted and the ship was fueled. On 7 March 1941 the ship sailed for the port of Cherbourg, France, arriving in the afternoon of 8 March. Lothringen then visited Brest harbour, then Saint-Nazaire on 20 March followed by La Pallice on 11 May.
For re-supply of U-boats Lothringen took on:[7]
On 11 May 1941, Lothringen sailed from La Pallice, the deep-water port of La Rochelle, France.[7] The ship was due to rendezvous with a U-boat on 17 June 1941, however on the early morning of the 15 June Lothringen was sighted at position 19.8167°N -68°W,[5] north west of the Cape Verde Islands, by Fairey Swordfish aircraft of the aircraft carrier [8] while on patrol as part of Operation Salvage looking for commerce raiders and U-boat supply ships in the South Atlantic. The Swordfish attacked with machine-gun fire and bombs damaging the ship's lifeboats.[7] The lack of seaworthy boats meant that the crew never scuttled the ship and Naval Intelligence at the time described it as the first time a ship surrendered to aircraft.[7] The ship was captured on the same day at 17:00 by the light cruiser .[9] [7]
When the Lothringen was captured, it provided valuable new techniques and design in replenishment at sea and specifically a new type of buoyant rubber hose.
Lothringen was taken by a prize crew to Bermuda.[10] The ship was passed to the Ministry of War Transport and renamed Empire Salvage.[10] Her port of registry was changed to London. The United Kingdom Official Number 159160 and Code Letters BGTY wer allocated.[4] In September, it left Bermuda, crewed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary[10] and sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and in October sailed from there to the United Kingdom as part of Convoy HX 153. Empire Salvage was used in refuelling experiments with other British ships before fitting out with armament. Empire Salvage returned to Halifax and served there as "Station Oiler". For Operation Husky, Empire Salvage was in the Mediterranean refuelling ships in Algiers harbour and the Gulf of Salerno.
In late 1944, Empire Salvage transferred to the Far East supporting British operations there around Ceylon. The Empire Salvage was transferred back to the Dutch government but chartered by the Ministry of War Transport for continued operations.
On 15 May 1946 Empire Salvage was handed back to Van Ommeren's Scheeps at Rotterdam.[11] After a refit which included adding a boat deck amidships went into commercial service as Papendrecht.
The ship's port of registry was Rotterdam and the Code Letters PGQZ were allocated. From 23 November 1963 it was used as a storage tanker for molasses in Beira, Mozambique and the following year sold to Kinoshita & Co., Tokyo for breaking up, which occurred in February 1964.[5]