History Begins at Home

The city of Wilmington, Delaware lies on the Christiana River a short distance from the Delaware River. Wilmington, settled in 1638 by the Swedish, was joined to Baltimore, Maryland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by railroad in 1837. Its proximity to both the water and rail as well as resources such as coal and iron ore made it a natural place for businesses to build iron, and later steel, steam-powered ships as well as rail cars.

Firms like Harlan and Hollingsworth (later a part of Bethlehem Steel) and the Pusey and Jones Corporation began building iron ships around 1840-1850. Today, the huge towering cranes on the riverfront, seen from Interstate 95, that once lifted materials into the ships as they were being built is about all that remains of the once thriving ship and rail car building industry.



Built in 1928 for the Baltimore Steam Packet Co. by the Pusey and Jones Corporation, the S.S. President Warfield carried passengers and freight between Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore, Md., for a decade before being acquired by the War Shipping Administration at Baltimore in July of 1942, and converted into a transport craft for transfer to the British Ministry of War Transport.

Manned by a British merchant crew led by Capt. J. R. Williams, she departed St. John’s, Newfoundland, September 21, 1942, with other small passenger steamers bound for the United Kingdom. Attacked by a German submarine 800 miles west of Ireland on the 25th, she evaded one torpedo, and, after the scattering of her convoy, safely reached Belfast, Ireland. In Britain, she served as a barracks and training ship on the Torridge River at Instow (near Bideford).

Returned by Britain, she joined the U.S. Navy as the President Warfield on May 21, 1944. In July 1944 she served as a station and accommodations ship at Omaha Beach, France. Following duty in England and on the Seine River, she arrived Norfolk, Va., July 25, 1945. Struck from the Naval Vessel Register in October, she was returned to the War Shipping Administration in mid-November 1945, a year later, she was sold to the Potomac Shipwrecking Co. of Washington, D.C., agents for a mystery buyer.

Loaded July 12, 1947 with 4,500 Jewish refugees bound for Palestine, she departed Sete, France, but came under the surveillance of British warships ordered to prevent further immigration into Palestine. Upon arrival in Palestinian waters, she was conducted by British warships into Haifa Harbor where she later sank. Her port side had been damaged by ramming by a British warship, and her passengers were denied entry into Palestine.

The damaged former President Warfield remained moored to a breakwater at Haifa harbour as a derelict until it burned to the waterline August 26, 1952. Later towed to Shemen Beach, Haifa, the wreak was raised in 1963 and scrapped by an Italian firm.



This ship, of course, is better known as the "Exodus 1947" and the wrenching story of the Jewish passengers told in a riveting novel written by Leon Uris titled "Exodus".

More on the Exodus 1947 story