"empire earl" was launched on 8 december 1943 and completed in may 1944. she was placed under the management of dodd, thompson & co ltd. she was allocated the united kingdom official number 180132 and code letters gbwq. her port of registry was sunderland. her captain was arthur hawkins, who had been in command of "empire sunrise" when she was torpedoed and sunk in 1942 and had subsequently been master of the fort ship .