December Newsletter - Heritage

“Af-Al-Pi-Chen” Illegal Immigration Ship
at
The Clandestine Immigration and Israel Navy Museum

In our September issue, we told you about our visit to the Clandestine Immigration and Israel Navy Museum — and how one of the museum’s biggest attractions was unfortunately closed for renovations. We promised we’d go back once it reopened… and we did!

(If you missed our original article, you can read it here.)

So now we can finally share the fascinating story behind this remarkable ship — with photos below, of course. 

Meet LCT 147 (later renamed Af Al Pi Chen), an amphibious assault vessel originally built in 1941 to land tanks, vehicles, and troops directly onto beachheads. She first saw action during the Invasion of North Africa in June 1943, and after the war was briefly transferred to the Italian Navy before being sold into commercial service.

But in 1947, her story took a dramatic turn when she was acquired by the Mossad LeAliyah Bet — the organization that defied the strict British immigration quotas of the time. Between 1934 and 1948, 116 ships brought more than 122,000 Jews to Israel, most of them after WWII. The Af Al Pi Chen set sail just weeks after the famous Exodus 1947 voyage. Her new name —“In spite of everything” — honored that spirit of determination.

On September 17, 1947, she departed Formia, Italy carrying 434 Holocaust survivors, crowded together on a ship never meant for that many souls. As she neared Palestine, a British aircraft spotted her, and four Royal Navy destroyers closed in. In the chaos that followed, Af Al Pi Chen was even rammed by one of the destroyers. Eventually she was overtaken and towed to Haifa, and her passengers were sent to internment camps in Cyprus. Most of the passengers finally reached Israel in 1948.

When the State of Israel was established in June 1948, the new Israeli Navy gathered every ship it could find — including the Af Al Pi Chen. She served as a training vessel during the War of Independence, and in 1956 was assigned one last role during Operation Musketeer: delivering tanks to the Gaza coast. Her engines weren’t even working at that point — the plan was to push her with a tugboat — but the IDF captured the area before she arrived, and the landing was cancelled.

The Af Al Pi Chen was decommissioned in 1958, and a decade later, became the iconic centerpiece of the museum in Haifa. That’s the very ship we were finally able to explore on our return visit.

A fun and interesting fact:

The ship is referred to in documents as LCT 147, but the markings on her hull clearly read TLC 147. Both are correct!

The British Navy changed its naming conventions during WWII:

·                 TLC = Tank Landing Craft (the original term when she was built)

·                 LCT = Landing Craft, Tank (the later standardized version)

A small change — but a nice little piece of naval trivia for history lovers ☺️.