Darien II was the last ship to bring Aliya Bet refugees to Haifa during World War II. A former lighthouse tender, she sailed from the Black Sea to Palestine in early 1941.
Ship history
Early career
The ship was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Glasgow in 1892 for the Northern Lighthouse Board and served as a tender, named Pole Star, based at Stromness. She was renamed Orphir in 1931, and then sold to William Marshall of Glasgow for conversion to a salvage ship under the same name. In 1933 she was again sold to James M. Stewart of Glasgow. It was used in 1935 to discover the wreck of RMS Lusitania. In 1939 it was sold to P. Svolakis & Co., of Piraeus, Greece, renamed Sophia S, and registered at Colón, Panama.
Aliya Bet
In May 1940 the ship was purchased in Piraeus by Moshe Agami and Shmarya Zameret for $40,000. Zameret, who was a U.S. citizen, was the registered owner, Both men were members of Mossad LeAliyah Bet, a branch of Haganah that organised illegal Jewish emigration from Europe to the British Mandate of Palestine.
On 15 March 1941, the ship sailed from Istanbul. It was not intercepted by the British, and could have landed the refugees on the coast. However the ship sailed directly into Haifa on 19 March, and the refugees were detained
She operated under the control of the Ministry of War Transport, and was managed by the Wilson Line in 1945, and was purchased from her owners by the Ministry of Transport in 1948 to operate in the Eastern Mediterranean. She was eventually laid up at Port Said in 1950, sold to Italian ship-breakers, and arrived at Spezia for breaking up in 1951.
See also
- Ruth Klüger - Aliav