Empire Fowey was a 19,121 GRT ocean liner that was built in 1935 as Potsdam by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg for the Hamburg America Line. She was sold before completion to Norddeutscher Lloyd. While owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd she was one of three sister ships operating the service between Bremen and the Far East. Her sister ships were SS Scharnhorst and SS Gneisenau.

Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss, Blohm und Voß etc., is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel-hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battleship Bismarck. In the 1930s, its owners established the Hamburger Flugzeugbau aircraft manufacturer which, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, adopted the name of its parent company. Following a difficult period after the war, B+V was revived, changing ownership among several owners, as Thyssen Group and Star Capital. In 2016, it became a subsidiary of Lürssen and continues to supply both the military and civilian markets. It serves two areas – new construction of warships as NVL B.V. & Co. KG, and new construction and refitting of megayachts. The company has been in operation, building ships and other large machinery, almost continuously for 147 years.