In August 1939 Tiger Hill brought Jewish refugees from Europe to Palestine for Aliyah Bet.

[5] She had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder, 285 NHP triple-expansion engine built by David Rowan & Co of Glasgow.

[8] In 1933 Hellenic Coast Lines renamed her Cyprus,[9] and in 1935 the company changed the registered spelling to Kypros.

[12] In 1939 General Steamships Co Ltd bought Ellinico Ypethro, renamed her Tiger Hill, and registered her in Panama.

[3] This left Kypros, formerly Thrace, as the last survivor of the three sister ships that McMillan and Son built in 1887.

[15] Another Panamanian-registered ship, Frossoula, had left Sulina in Romania on 29 May carrying 658 Czechoslovak Jewish refugees.

[15] Frossoula had docked in Beirut on 16 July,[18] but French authorities had refused to let the refugees enter Lebanon or Syria.

Under a policy ratified in May 1939, United Kingdom authorities were not allowing Jewish refugees to enter Palestine.

On 1 September, Royal Navy gunboats and RAF aircraft opened fire on Tiger Hill off Tel Aviv.

A crowd of spectators gathered on Frishman beach in Tel Aviv, where Tiger Hill's Master ran her aground in shallow water.