Eleni was a 6,112 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1947 by Lübecker Flenderwerke AG, Lübeck, Germany. She had been laid down as Greifswald for Norddeutscher Lloyd. She was captured uncompleted in May 1945 and passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT), being completed in 1948 as Empire Ely. In 1954, she was sold to a Liberian company and renamed Maribella. A sale in 1955 to West Germany saw her renamed Ganges.