Scio (ship)

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The Scio was a cargo ship originally planned as a bait ship for the First World War . After World War II , the Scio was chartered by the Israel Defense Ministry to bring weapons and military equipment to Israel during the Israeli War of Independence .

history

The Scio was registered with Smith Docks Co. Ltd. in 1918 under the registration number MS 20 . laid down in Middlesbrough, England . She was supposed to serve as a bait ship in the First World War. With the end of the war in November 1918, this purpose ceased, and the ship was completed as a civilian cargo ship and put into service as Mallock in 1919 .

In 1934 the Mallock was sold to Italy and renamed Scio . "Scio" is the Italian name of the Greek Aegean island of Chios . In the 1940s, the Scio began to be used by the Hagana and the Palyam . Initially, the ship continued to operate under the Italian flag and with a purely Italian crew. Over time, Israeli seafarers were taken on as escort and protection crew.

After the establishment of the state, the Israeli Defense Ministry bought the ship, registered it in Honduras and chartered the Scio to Hakibutz Hameuchad, a company integrated into the kibbutz structure. As a rule, the Scio was then operated as a civilian merchant ship with an almost exclusively Israeli crew from the kibbutzim Sdot Jam and Ma'agan Micha'el , but could be used at short notice for military transport tasks. The Scio was the first ship with which the concept of a kibbutz-owned operating company was implemented.

As a transport ship for the Palyam and later for the Israeli Navy , the Scio played an important role in the arming of the Israeli army and in the course of the war of independence. She completed z. For example, despite the UN arms embargo, which was strictly implemented against Israel, between July 1948 and May 1949 a total of seven freight trips with which military equipment and ammunition, hidden under civilian freight, were brought to Israel.

During the great strike of the Israeli seafarers in 1951, the Scio was used by the strike leadership as a floating radio station through which it kept contact with all Israeli ships across the globe. In 1952 the charter contract between the Ministry of Defense and Hakibutz Hameuchad expired. The Scio was still privately owned for several months, and sold for scrapping in January 1953.

Technical specifications

  • Length: 55.0 m
  • Width: 9.14 m
  • Tonnage: 900 to
  • Drive: Sulzer two-stroke heavy oil engine
  • Speed: 6.5 kn
  • Year of construction: 1918 (keel laying) / 1919 (launch)
  • Builder: Smiths Docks Co. Ltd. Middlesbrough
  • Home port: Genoa or Puerto Cortés

Web links

  • Scio at Palyam.org (PDF, engl.)