Hannover was renamed Sinbad, given a UK Official Number and assigned new Code Letters. Damage was mainly confined to her electrical system. Hughes of Dunedin was mentioned in despatches for his part in securing Hannover. Hannover was then towed to Jamaica, arriving on 11 March. However, it took four days for the salvage crew to put out the fire. A boarding party from Dunedin closed the sea cocks and Hannover was taken under tow. When Dunedin and Assiniboine intercepted Hannover, Captain Wahnschaff ordered the seacocks opened and the ship set on fire. Hannover was ordered to stop, but ignored the order and tried to reach the neutral waters of the Dominican Republic. She was sighted between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico on the night of 7/8 March by the light cruiser Dunedin and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Assiniboine. In March 1940, Hannover attempted to return to Germany as a blockade runner. When World War II began, Hannover sought refuge in CuraƧao, Netherlands Antilles. She was owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd and plied between Germany and the West Indies on the banana run. Hannover was a 5,537 GRT cargo liner built by Bremer Vulkan Schiff- und Maschinenbau, Vegesack and launched on 29 March 1939. SS Hannover listing before her capture on 6 March 1940 She was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in late 1941. She was converted and commissioned as HMS Empire Audacity, then as HMS Audacity. She was originally the German merchant ship Hannover, which the British captured in the West Indies in March 1940 and renamed Sinbad, then Empire Audacity. HMS Audacity was a British escort carrier of the Second World War and the first of her kind to serve in the Royal Navy. HMS Audacity, after her conversion to an escort carrier
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