Ocean Vigour
| History | |
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| Builder: | Richmond Shipyards, Richmond, California |
| Launched: | 14 February 1942 |
| Identification: | Official number:168826 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1967 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Ocean class cargo ship |
| Tonnage: | 7,174 GRT |
| Length: | 416 ft (127 m) |
| Beam: | 57 ft (17 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1 × General Machinery Corp. triple expansion steam engine |
| Speed: | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
SS Ocean Vigour was a British Ocean class freighter, which served on various convoys during World War II, and then as a troopship before being used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants who attempted to enter Mandate Palestine to internment camps in Cyprus. She took part in the return of immigrants from the SS Exodus back to Europe, before being sold into commercial service. She was scrapped in 1967.
Ocean Vigour was built at Permanente Metals Richmond shipyard No.1 in Richmond, California, one of 60 ships of this class constructed for the British Ministry of War Transport, and launched on 14 February 1942.
Operated by the E. R. Management Company of Liverpool on behalf of the Ministry of War Transport,Ocean Vigour was employed on convoys across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean in 1942-1943, 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.
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.
On 18 July 1947 the SS Exodus was captured by a squadron of British naval ships and escorted into Haifa. 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, where on 8 September, the 1,464 immigrants aboard Ocean Vigour were forcibly disembarked by military police and soldiers equipped with truncheons and tear gas, and taken to internment camps in Lübeck.
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