Altalena Wreck Found Intact After 78 Years on Mediterranean Seafloor
Following a complex maritime search operation, the historic Irgun cargo ship Altalena was located intact at a depth of 1,650 feet west of Israel’s coast.
The ship originally arrived off the Israeli coast in June 1948 during the War of Independence, carrying hundreds of immigrants and a massive shipment of weapons intended for the Irgun militia. At the time, as the newly formed state and the IDF were being established, then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion demanded that all weapons be handed over to the unified military rather than remaining under independent militia control.
When a dispute broke out over the cargo, an armed standoff ensued. Ben-Gurion ordered the newly formed military to fire upon the vessel, and forces on the shore—under the command of a young Yitzchak Rabin—shelled and set the ship ablaze off the coast of Tel Aviv. The deadly confrontation resulted in the deaths of 16 Irgun members and three IDF soldiers, leaving a deep and lasting scar on Israeli political history before the damaged vessel was eventually towed out to sea and sunk.
The recent operation to map and locate the resting place of the vessel utilized advanced marine mapping technology. Officials described the discovery as a historic milestone that closes a decades-old circle for the nation’s collective memory, carried out through an operation that cost 1 million shekel.
