MV Struma was a small ship with a long history that included a number of changes of use and many changes of name.

She was built in 1867 as a British marquess's luxury steam yacht and ended up 75 years later as a Greek and Bulgarian diesel ship for carrying livestock.

She was launched as Xantha, but subsequently carried the names Sölyst, Sea Maid, Kafireus, Esperos, Makedoniya and finally Struma.

Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company[1] of Jarrow in North East England built her in 1867 as the iron-hulled yacht Xantha for Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey,[3] who was a courtier to Queen Victoria and Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey in North Wales.

[3] One source suggests that in 1913 during the Balkan Wars the Kingdom of Greece requisitioned her as a troopship to take soldiers from Chalkidiki to Amphipolis.

[4] In 1933[3] Mylonas sold her to a Bulgarian owner, Dimiter Kenkov, who renamed her Makedoniya,[2] based her in the port of Varna and used her to carry cattle on the River Danube.

[4] In 1941 Kenkov sold her to Compañía Mediterránea de Vapores Limitada, which was controlled by a Greek shipping agent, Jean D Pandelis.

Her engine still did not work so they towed her back out into the Black Sea and cast her adrift about 10 miles off Istanbul.

[16] Many others aboard survived the sinking and clung to pieces of wreckage, but for hours no rescue came and all but one of them died from drowning or hypothermia.

[16] Struma's First Officer clung to a piece of wreckage that was floating in the sea along with a 19-year-old refugee, David Stoliar.