Dvora
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The Dvora was an Israeli cargo ship . She achieved particular importance as the Hagana's arms and immigrant ship . In its eventful history, the Dvora was also registered under the names Dicto , American Cardinal , Mallard , Kefalos and Dromit . During an arms transport from Mexico to Israel, the ship went under the cover name Pinzon .
history
The ship was built in 1917 by Union Iron Works Co. in Alameda , California . The oil-fired boiler steam engine was manufactured by Mc.Kie & Baxter Ltd. delivered from Glasgow . Under the name Dicto , the ship was put into service by the Norwegian shipping company B. Stolt-Nielsen from Haugesund . Ships with the name Dicto had a long tradition at Stolt-Nielsen : At the beginning of the First World War , the shipping company lost its steamship Dicto . In June 1915 the Fjordheim was bought as a replacement and renamed Dicto . On April 5, 1917, this ship was sunk off Ouessant by a German submarine , and was later replaced by the Dicto described in this article .
In 1928 the Dicto was sold to EB Aaby in Oslo , and in 1933 to the American Foreign Steam Ship Corporation based in New York , where it sailed under the names American Cardinal and Mallard . After the Second World War , the ship now registered as Kefalos sailed under the Panamanian flag .
Weapons ship
The Hagana bought the Kefalos in May 1948 for US $ 190,000 as their seventh and final arms ship. The six previous ships, the Nora , Scio , Arsia , Borea , Rex and Maestralle , were bought by Hagana's European procurement unit in Europe . In contrast, the Kefalos was bought by the American delegation in New York. The handover to the Panamanian front company Manuel Enterprises took place on June 1st. On June 14th, the Kefalos left New York with destination Tampico under the leadership of Captain Adolph S. Oko Junior with a team that was mainly formed from Spaniards and Basques. Only five crew members were Haganah members.
In a Dromi mentioned operation were in Mexico Weapons (36 French including howitzers caliber 75 mm, 17,000 artillery shells , 2,000 bombs 500, machine guns and submachine guns as well as 7 million rounds of ammunition ) and aviation fuel to Israel's War of Independence loaded. Because of the arms embargo imposed on the warring parties , which was monitored by UN observers in Tel Aviv , the cargo was camouflaged with 1,400 tons of South American sugar on instructions from Teddy Kollek . Based on the name of the operation, the Kefalos was given the funk code name Dromit . There was an unplanned forced stay of 42 days in Tampico. On August 3, the Dromit left with the officially stated destination Shanghai , for the non-stop direct trip to Tel Aviv additional fuel was bunkered in barrels and partly in drinking water tanks. During the first days at sea, the ship's name was painted over and changed to Pinzon , and the superstructure was changed or camouflaged. Three days before arriving in Tel Aviv, the water supplies were exhausted, although around 10 tons of rainwater were collected during the journey. The ship reached Israel with the last fuel reserves on September 8, during the second phase of the armistice. Due to poor radio contact, there was no communication between the Hagana and the ship once it was in the Mediterranean . Schaul Avigur's decision to divert the Dromit to Yugoslavia and distribute the cargo to three smaller, more inconspicuous ships had not reached the ship. The feared discovery of the hidden cargo by UN observers did not materialize; the UN inspectors released the cargo after a brief inspection . The weapons were immediately unloaded and distributed to the theaters of war in the Negev and to military operations in Galilee . Only on September 12th, after the ship was completely unloaded, was it thoroughly searched by two UN inspectors.
Immigrant ship
On September 13, 1948, the ship left for Italy , again under the original name of Kefalos and still under the Panamanian flag . With its 5,000 t loading capacity , the Kefalos was too big for further arms transports, most arms purchases amounted to 500 to 1,000 t per trade, and there was no way to collect the arms. Therefore, the Kefalos was intended for civil transport tasks, but could not initially be used, so that even the sale was considered. Eventually the Mossad le'Alija chartered the Kefalos for use as an immigrant ship. From October 1st, the renovation in Naples took place to accommodate passengers. Just over a month later, on November 8, 4000 from were Bulgaria originating Jews in Split taken on board and after Haifa brought. On November 28th, the Kefalos started another immigrant trip. Contrary to a clear instruction from David Ben Gurion , which forbade the simultaneous transport of immigrants and weapons, the Kefalos was directed to Bari to load tanks as well as passengers . Captain Oko ignored this instruction and let the Kefalos continue to Split, where 3,737 immigrants were received and driven to Haifa. After this, his third voyage with the Kefalos , Captain Oko left the ship.
Civil use
After the second immigration voyage , the Kefalos was converted back to a cargo ship and officially renamed Dromit in January 1949 . She continued to sail for the Israeli company Zim Co. under the Panamanian flag until she became Israel's first cargo ship on January 26, 1950 with the official registration as an Israeli ship with home port Haifa. In 1955 the ship was sold to Commerce & Shipping Co. and renamed Dvora (Hebrew for Debora, German bee). When it was bought back by Zim Co. in August 1959, it kept the name.
On March 6, 1962, the Dvora was struck off the register of ships and sold for scrapping in 1963.
Individual evidence
Web links
- Contemporary witness report about the gun ship (PDF)