Messina was a 2,192 GRT cargo ship which was built in 1937 by Neptun AG, Rostock, Germany. She was built for Robert Miles Sloman Jr, Hamburg. In 1940 she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine. In 1945 she was seized as a war prize and passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). Renamed Empire Cherwell, in 1947 she was transferred to the Soviet Union and renamed Polus.. She served until the early 1960s, her name being removed from shipping registers in 1961.