Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

SS Bograven was a a small Dutch cargo-passenger vessel. owned by NV Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Mij (KNSM), Amsterdam.
Built: 1929, by C. van der Giessen & Zonen’s Scheepswerven NV, Krimpen aan den IJssel
Capacity: 5,593 tons

On May 14, 1940, the day the Dutch Army surrendered to Germany, the freighter, SS Bodegraven, the last Kindertransport, sailed from Amsterdam for England, carrying 80 children.
Truus Wijsmuller-Meyer escorted the Kindertransport through burning Amsterdam to SS Bodegraven.
SS Bodegraven was the last cargo boat to sail from Ijmuiden Ymuiden to Dover.
Passengers who did not hold proper papers, including hundreds of Jewish refugees, were forced to continue on to Liverpool.
SS Bodegraven landed at Liverpool, raked by machine gun fire from German war planes, and had at least one death on board,

In late June, 1944, SS Bodegraven sailed from Capetown, in a convoy of about 30 ships; her Captain was Master B.A.Molenaar.

At 01.30AM, Juy 2l, 1944, SS Bodegraven, 200 miles south of Monrovia, was hit on the port side in the engine room by a torpedo from U-547, and sank after 12 minutes.
The 48 passengers and 63 crew members abandonned ship in the three lifeboats, one lifeboat having been destroyed.