Early career The ship was built by the
Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Glasgow in 1892 for the
Northern Lighthouse Board and served as a tender, named
Pole Star, based at
Stromness. She was renamed
Orphir in 1931, and then sold to William Marshall of Glasgow for conversion to a salvage ship under the same name. In 1933 she was again sold to James M. Stewart of Glasgow. It was used in 1935 to discover the wreck of RMS
Lusitania. In 1939 it was sold to P. Svolakis & Co., of
Piraeus, Greece, renamed
Sophia S, and registered at Colón, Panama.
Aliya Bet In May 1940 the ship was purchased in Piraeus by Moshe Agami and Shmarya Zameret for $40,000. Zameret, who was a
U.S. citizen, was the registered owner, Both men were members of
Mossad LeAliyah Bet, a branch of
Haganah that organised illegal Jewish emigration from Europe to the
British Mandate of Palestine. On 15 March 1941, the ship sailed from
Istanbul. It was not intercepted by the British, and could have landed the refugees on the coast. However the ship sailed directly into
Haifa on 19 March, and the refugees were detained She operated under the control of the
Ministry of War Transport, and was managed by the
Wilson Line in 1945, and was purchased from her owners by the
Ministry of Transport in 1948 to operate in the Eastern Mediterranean. She was eventually laid up at
Port Said in 1950, sold to Italian ship-breakers, and arrived at
Spezia for breaking up in 1951. ==In media==