Struma disaster
She was a small iron-hulled ship of only 240 GRT and had been built in 1867 as a steam-powered schooner[3] but had recently been re-engined with an unreliable second-hand diesel engine.
Within hours, on the morning of 24 February, the Shch-213 torpedoed her, killing 781 refugees[1] and 10 crew, which made it the Black Sea's largest exclusively-civilian naval disaster of World War II.
The Struma disaster joined that of SS Patria, which was sunk after Haganah sabotage in a failed attempt to prevent the deportation of Jewish refugees from Mandatory Palestine.
[7][13] Passengers were told they would be sailing on a renovated boat with a short stop in Istanbul to collect their Palestinian immigration visas.
[17] The refugees had no money after they had bought their tickets and leaving Romania and so they gave all their wedding rings to the tugboatmen, who then repaired the engine.
[citation needed] British diplomats urged the Turkish government of Refik Saydam to prevent Struma from continuing her voyage.
[16] After weeks of negotiation, the British government agreed to honour the expired Palestinian visas that were possessed by a few passengers, who were allowed to continue to Palestine overland.
[12] On 12 February, British officials agreed that children from 11 to 16 on the ship would be given Palestinian visas, but a dispute occurred over their transportation to Palestine.
[16] A larger force of about 80 police officers came then surrounded Struma with motor boats, and after about half an hour of resistance, it boarded the ship.
[16][19] As she was towed along the Bosporus, many passengers hung signs over the sides that read "SAVE US" in English and Hebrew that were visible to those who lived on the banks of the strait.
Turkish Government denied its entry and the British forbade it from proceeding to Palestine, the unseaworthy vessel was forced to leave harbour.
[24] 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.
[25] Struma's First Officer Lazar Dikof and the 19-year-old refugee David Stoliar clung to a cabin door, which was floating in the sea.
He stated with bitterness: "I hope yet to live to see those who sent the Struma cargo back to the Nazis hung as high as Haman cheek by jowl with their prototype and Führer, Adolf Hitler".
[29] Anglo-Jewish poet Emanuel Litvinoff, serving in the British Army at the time, wrote a scathing poem mourning the loss of Struma.
[33] The submarine had been acting under secret orders to sink all neutral and enemy shipping entering the Black Sea to reduce the flow of strategic material to Nazi Germany.
[35] Greater numbers of civilians perished in other maritime disasters of the war, including Wilhelm Gustloff, Cap Arcona and Junyō Maru, but there were also military personnel aboard those ships at the time.
