SS Ocean Vigour

Ocean Vigour was built at Permanente Metals Richmond shipyard No.1 in Richmond, California,[2] one of 60 ships of this class constructed for the British Ministry of War Transport,[3] and launched on 14 February 1942.[2]

Operated by the E. R. Management Company of Liverpool on behalf of the Ministry of War Transport,[4] Ocean Vigour was employed on convoys across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean in 1942-1943,[5][6][7] and between June and August 1944 she is recorded on sailing on seven convoys between the English port of Southend and the Baie de la Seine on the northern coast of France.[8]

Under the designation HMT Ocean Vigour the ship was operating the eastern Mediterranean, employed in transporting illegal Jewish immigrants to detention camps in Cyprus. On 2 April 1947, a sabotage unit of the Palyam detonated a bomb aboard while she was moored at Famagusta, Cyprus.[9]

On 18 July 1947 the SS Exodus was captured by a squadron of British naval ships and escorted into Haifa.[10] The 4,515 immigrants were transferred into three British ships, Runnymede Park, Empire Rival and Ocean Vigour, which sailed for Port-de-Bouc, France. However most of the immigrants refused to leave the ship, and eventually they sailed for Hamburg, Germany,[11] where on 8 September, the 1,464 immigrants aboard Ocean Vigour were forcibly disembarked[12] by military police and soldiers equipped with truncheons and tear gas, and taken to internment camps in Lübeck.[13]

After Israeli Independence in 1948, the Ocean Vigour was tasked with deporting Irgun and Lehi members who had been interned in African prison camps, in Britain's African colonies. On 9 July 1948, the Ocean Vigour set sail for Israel with 262 detainees aboard, and arrived in Israel three days later.[14]

In 1948 the ship was sold to the British Steam Shipping Company, and managed by J. Cory & Sons of Cardiff, under the name Ramillies. She was sold to the Orders & Handford Steamship Company in 1954, but remained under Cory's management until sold again in 1955 to the Buchanan Shipping Company and renamed Galavale, managed by Andrew Crawford Ltd. of Glasgow. Finally in 1957 the ship was sold to the Italian company Corrado Società Anonima di Navigazione of Genoa, who operated her under the name Confidenza until 1967, when she was scrapped in La Spezia.[4]