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HMT Ocean Vigour was a British freighter, converted into a caged prison ship^[1], and used to deport illegal Jewish immigrant who attempted to reach the British Mandate of Palestine back to Europe and to prison camps in Cyprus. On April 3, 1947, the ship was damaged by a bomb planted by the Haganah’s Palyam forces^[2], while docked at the port of Famagusta.^[3]

Ocean Vigour gained notoriety as one of 3 ships ^[4] used by the Mandate authorities in “Operation Oasis” to deport the Holocaust survivors of Exodus 1947 back to Germany. The ship carried 1,464 deportees to Port-de-Bouc near Marseilles, and when they refused to disembark there, on to Hamburg, Germany, where they were forced off by club-wielding British troops^[5].

References

1. ^ Operation Oasis
2. ^ The Royal Navy and the Palestine Patrol , Ninian Stewart, C. L. W. Page, p.196 Routledge, 2002
3. ^ British Rule in Palestine
4. ^ "In Palestine or Never"
5. ^ Lavine, Frank