Exodus (ship)

Exodus 1947 after British takeover. Banner says: "Haganah Ship Exodus 1947".
History
United States
Name:	SS Exodus
Owner:	Baltimore Steam Packet Company
Route:	Norfolk to Baltimore
Builder:	Pusey and Jones
Completed:	1927
In service:	1928
Out of service:	1947
Fate:	Sunk as a breakwater
General characteristics as USS President Warfield
Tonnage:	1,814 t
Length:	320 ft (98 m)
Beam:	56 ft 6 in (17.22 m)
Draught:	18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Speed:	15 kn (28 km/h)
Troops:	400
Complement:	70

Exodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants from France to British Mandatory Palestine on July 11, 1947. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivors who had no legal immigration certificates for Palestine. Following wide media coverage, the British Royal Navy seized the ship and deported all its passengers back to Europe.

The ship was formerly the packet steamer SS President Warfield for the Baltimore Steam Packet Company. From the ship's launch in 1928 until 1942, it carried passengers and freight between Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. During World War II, it served both the Royal Navy and the United States Navy; for the latter as USS President Warfield (IX-169).

After World War II, millions of European Jews were living under guard and behind barbed wire fences and without adequate medical care and other services in "displaced persons" camps within Germany and Austria. Jewish organizations then began organizing an underground network known as the Brichah ("flight," in Hebrew), which moved thousands of Jews from the camps to ports on the Mediterranean Sea, so they could then be sent to Palestine by ship. This was part of what was known as Aliyah Bet or the "second immigration," which were a series of attempts by European Jews to immigrate illegally to Palestine before and after World War II. Originally the European Jews arranged transport to Palestine themselves. Later, they requested and received financial and other support from sympathizers elsewhere in the world. The boats were largely staffed by volunteers from the United States, Canada and Latin America. Over 100,000 people tried to illegally immigrate to Palestine, as part of Aliyah Bet.