iv PALESTINE PATROL, NAVY NEWS, MAY 2008
Exodus ends in far-from-
I
F ONE single incident from the Palestine Patrol struck
a chord which was heard around the world, it was the
interception of the President Warfield and the destiny
of her 4,554 passengers.
The President Warfield, later to gain fame – or notoriety – as
Exodus 1947 – was launched in 1928 as a passenger steamer in
Chesapeake Bay.
The 330ft flagship of the
The voyage of the
Old Bay Line went to war in
1942, requisitioned by the US
President Warfield from
Government and sailed across the
France to Palestine,
Atlantic by a British crew. and the diversion of her
She acted as harbour control
passengers to Germany,
vessel off Omaha Beach in 1944,
and later transported American
was a pivotal episode
troops up the Seine.
in the Palestine Patrol
She returned to Norfolk, Virginia, and the Mandate itself
at the end of the war, but her
– and once again it was
previous trade had all but dried up
and she was put up for sale.
the Royal Navy in the
She was bought by Haganah
harsh spotlight of world
through a network of false firms, opinion
and although the British were
receiving no official intelligence
preparing the President Warfield’s
help from the States, they were
passengers for arrival in Palestine by
soon fully aware of the plans her
telling them (in numerous languages)
new owners had for the ship.
they would not be able to stay.
President Warfield made her third
As the Senior Service followed
transatlantic crossing via the Azores
President Warfield, officers and
to Marseilles, being shadowed by a
men planned a boarding, poring
British warship from the Strait of
over drawings of the ship provided
Gibraltar to the French city.
by the Admiralty and factoring in
With the British taking a close
observations from HMS Childers.
interest, and putting pressure
Using these facts, Lt Cdr Bailey
on the French to prevent illegal
constructed a boarding platform at
immigration ships sailing from their
bridge level on Childers, proposing
darkened ship and the destroyers rained down on their tin hats. A group of boarders from the ● The President Warfi eld – or
ports, President Warfield moved on
to use that and the Flag Deck
started making probes, wearing They briefly gained control of wheelhouse made a foray below Exodus 1947 – before (above) and
to Porto Venere in Italy, arriving on
below as jumping-off points.
down the alertness of the the ship, but in a planned counter, decks to find the engine room and after (right) clashes with Royal
April 24 1947.
More RN ships joined the flotilla
defenders. the master took over the steering steering space, and they were said Navy destroyers
But the Italians were toeing
as the Egyptian coast was passed Although sea conditions were from a position aft. to have noted that most people
the line on barring the sailing of
(HM ships Chequers, Charity and slightly better, they were still not In the first sally, one rating was below decks had taken no part in
such voyages from its ports, so the
Cardigan Bay) and each closed in what Capt Watson would have injured and the sole officer, Acting the fighting and did not know what
American ship sailed again on June
on the President Warfield at various wished for – but his orders were Lt Shallow, estimated that up to 20 was happening around them.
12 to Port de Bouc in France with
times to familiarise themselves with that if the illegal immigrants got people on the President Warfield With the engine room securely
a crew of 58, no passengers and a
the American ship’s layout, moving ashore there could be serious could be counted as casualties. locked and the steering position
Royal Navy shadow close by.
away again to construct their own political repercussions and disorder, One American, William behind barbed wire, the Royal Navy
Ostensibly set for a voyage
boarding platforms on their blind and that neither danger to man nor Bernstein, attacked the sailors with team fell back to the wheelhouse.
to the Black Sea, she sailed
sides. machine should put him off. a fire extinguisher and sustained By this time all the main
from Port de Bouc but put
Although the weather was not Just before 0300 on July 18, head injuries which later killed participants – the four British
in to Sète, berthing in the
ideal – a Force Four wind and a approaching Palestinian territorial him. destroyers as well as President
Outer Harbour, where she
swell – Capt Watson (Commodore waters, the warships moved in – but An attempt to break through the Warfield – had been damaged.
quickly embarked almost
Palestine embarked in HMS the skill of the helmsman of the wooden decking of the wheelhouse, The warships had buckled
4,230 people, many from
Chequers) decided that the best President Warfield, who slowed as during which the British sailors plates and were leaking, while
Eastern Europe.
approach was to put as many they closed in, meant that Chieftain were fired on, ended when the fire the American ship was not only
boarders across as possible in a could not get anyone away while
was returned. severely battered but her low
The British protested, and the
short space of time, going for a Childers sped past her.
By this time Childers had freeboard meant every approach by
French authorities attempted to
quick capture. President Warfield then
managed to put a sub-lieutenant a destroyer washed more seawater
block the ship from sailing, but
Childers and Chieftain took accelerated and started a series
and two ratings across, but they on board.
in the small hours of July 11 she
extra boarding parties from Ajax to of violent turns, making the task
were forced to take shelter in a Shortly after 0430, with concern
cut her moorings and moved off,
boost their numbers, and were then of getting alongside her almost
cabin, and were then escorted away growing for passengers’ safety –
grounding slightly as she went.
to stand by on either side of the impossible in the swell.
by an influential American named and some urgently needing hospital
HMS Mermaid was the first to
President Warfield as Charity and At 0305 Childers tried again; the
Grauel. treatment – a plea to allow the
tail the renegade vessel, which was
Chequers attempted to get their first ‘storming party’ of one officer
ship to head straight for shore was
capable of 16 knots, and she and
own teams on board. and 15 men on the Flag Deck were
Four more sailors and a
RAF patrol aircraft kept her in sight
The slower Cardigan Bay also prevented from crossing by wire
Royal Marine jumped from
refused by the British.
until she was relieved by HMS had boarding parties ready, but her netting along the deck of the bay
Childers on her second
With little information about the
Cheviot. main role was to mop up, recovering steamer, while only one officer and
approach at 0332 and they
success or otherwise of the boarding
Cheviot in turn was joined by men who had fallen in the water, five ratings managed to negotiate
were also forced to take
parties, Capt Watson signalled Ajax
HMS Ajax out of Malta on July stopping boats getting away and, if the boarding platform higher up
refuge in cabins as the scale
to move in and act as a buffer as
13, and all the while arrangements no minesweeper turned up, towing the destroyer and get on board the
of the opposition caught
Chequers got ready to put boarders
were being made in Palestine for the boarded vessel into Haifa. President Warfield.
them by surprise.
across, but by the time they were
ready they had received a signal
the biggest passenger ships to Ajax was to be the last line With Childers swinging away
in while the President Warfield was co
Ninian Stewart’s book states that from President Warfield saying that
be stocked and ready for a full of defence, standing between the again, and no hope of immediate
steering erratically. Pr
“large rafts and the lifeboats were resistance was over and the ship
complement of illegal immigrants. President Warfield and the Palestine reinforcements, the six sailors
He also noted the need for better wh
dropped on to the destroyers and was prepared to head for Haifa.
The following day Cheviot was coast to prevent the blockade- forced their way to the wheelhouse,
protection of the warships’ open oc
the immigrants attacked boarders The immigrant ship stopped
replaced by HMS Childers, and runner from beaching herself. wielding batons to clear a path
bridges, by means of wire netting, su
with 12ft iron scaffolding poles, shortly after and a Naval doctor,
the men of Ajax were told to start As night fell, the RN flotilla throught the passengers as missiles
the provision of grappling devices Ru
crow bars, oars, horsewhips, axes, Surg Lt Bett, and Sick Berth
to prevent the target breaking away,
coshes, sticks and buckets, as well Attendant, went over from
and bolt-cutters or other such kit Pr
as throwing a rain of missiles – nuts, Chequers to aid the injured.
to break into strongholds. on
bolts and tins of all descriptions, Three men aboard the President
It was apparent that had the wh
including whole cases of food. Warfield died in the fighting, and the
President Warfield not been so me
“The food could be put to Naval doctor assessed fewer than
strongly built, the encounters with
some use, and the messman from ten further cases as being serious as
the destroyers could have ended in by
Childers’s Chief Petty Officers’ a result of the interception.
tragedy, with the ship holed and Sk
mess was seen gathering in this However, there were already a
sinking. Ba
manna.” large number of sick passengers on
wi
Distress flares and tear gas board, well beyond the capabilities
HMS Charity had been
arr
grenades were also used, and of the well-organised sick bay and
so badly bent on her one
Stewart notes that “the principal three Jewish doctors.
run that she was forced to
belligerents were youths, based in Surg Lt Bett signalled that there
undergo extensive repairs,
pr
upper deck cabins, many between were a further 200 cases needing
and her ship’s company
ke
the ages of 16 and 18.” proper nursing assistance, and
transferred en masse to
as
Chieftain’s fourth and final run more medics were called in from
HMS Volage, herself only
fis
only augmented the boarding force Ajax with medical supplies, while
recently repaired.
org
via
by one (he was quickly overpowered) the sailors of the boarding parties Once President Warfield had
on
before she had to withdraw, having were now able to help immigrants docked, the casualties were whisked
sustained damage, at around 0415. by applying first aid. off to hospital and the remaining
lan
She had fired on the President The engines also needed nursing immigrants were divided between
on
Warfield twice, the first time being as the rudimentary boilers were in three British transport vessels,
co
a revolver shot at an immigrant a bit of a state, but with the help Empire Rival, Ocean Vigour and
de
reportedly wielding an axe and of a friendly American engineer Runnymede Park.
threatening to behead a boarder. crewman named Sol, and with the Local reports of violence by few
HMS Chequers now took decks patrolled to prevent groups British military men and the dis
Chieftain’s place, but met with no gathering, the President Warfield use of rifle butts were strongly be
more success, her first run putting (or Exodus 1947, as the immigrants refuted – and at that point the the
three men across who were quickly dubbed her) steamed into Haifa at immigrants would have believed
surrounded. 1545 with the Zionist flag flying their destination to be Cyprus, be
One was hit by an axe and above her wheelhouse. offering a relatively quick return to go
jumped overboard, followed by a Capt Watson noted that despite Palestine as ‘gatecrashers’ through th
colleague, but the third man was the inability to get large numbers the monthly quota system. me
beaten into semi-consciousness and of men on board quickly, the The three ships sailed on July
was saved by American crewmen, venture had succeeded because of 19 at 0600 with orders from the loc
who prevented further attacks by the boarding platforms and the British Government to head for it
● HMS Mermaid’s boarding party at the Commando Training Centre in Malta – Valentine Smith is middle
the immigrants and took him to fine ship-handling of the destroyer Port de Bouc. Pe
row, third from the left
the sick bay. COs, who were attempting to close Escorting the slow-moving of
004-005_Palestine_may.indd 1 21/4/08 12:31:13
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