The rescue of the Alexia



On 3 April 1965, the Greek cargo ship Alexia crashed into the Andromeda Rocks at the entrance to the port of Jaffa, Israel.

14 of its sailors were rescued by the Israeli Air Force and the Israeli Navy.

The storm
The Alexia, a 2,000 ton steamship, was chartered by the company "M. Dizengoff & Co." from the Greek company Leodekancos.

On 2 April 1965, the Alexia arrived from Genoa and in the afternoon hours anchored opposite the port of Jaffa. In the ship's hold were 42 Fiat cars, 800 tons of iron destined for the "Mekorot" company and another 160 tons of general cargo.

The forecast predicted an approaching storm. Two other ships that arrived the same day moved away to the open sea. The weather kept worsening and just after midnight a severe storm broke out. The ship's anchors came loose and she crashed into the rocks. The crash's boom shook the nearby nightclubs. The port guard, Ezra Nissim, was stunned to see a cargo ship tossing on the waves, speedily approaching and landing on the rocks while blaring its horns.

Rescue attempts
The captain called for help to the Haifa port and asked for a tugboat to pull him off the rocks, but the storm did not allow this. At that time a rescue team gathered at the port of Jaffa: the nautical inspector Lieberman and port workers, Namirovsky, Pinchas Cohen, Yaakov Greenberg and Zalman Ben Avi.

The port warehouses were broken into and a motorboat was lowered into the raging waters. Part of the rescue crew approached the ship by boat and called on the sailors to abandon ship. The captain announced: "We are not abandoning ship" and with light signals asked that tugboats be brought to extricate the ship from the rocks

A team of navy swimmers arrived but could not enter the water.

With first light the navy went into action. A rope was shot to the ship's mast and connected to the port administration building's roof. A motorboat approached in order to accompany the sailors who were supposed to descend the rope like in an "omega". But the sailors refused to descend that way. Only one of them agreed, it was the boatswain. While descending on the rope the ship swung from side to side, he was immersed in water and collected by the accompanying boat. Dozens of people waited for him on shore with a bottle of whiskey.

In the meantime thousands of onlookers gathered on the seashore. The Greek consul was also there along with the Ports Authority director Maj. Gen. Haim Laskov. The crowd was so big that police cars had to be brought in to maintain order.

The rescue
At 9:30 in the morning an air force helicopter arrived. The helicopter hovered over the ship several times and disappeared to the disappointment of the spectators. The helicopter pilot Eliezer Cohen (Cheetah) asked to lower the rope tied from the ship to shore as he was worried about colliding with it. After the rope was removed the helicopter reappeared and began the rescue operation. The wind blew at a speed of 25-30 knots, the ship tossed from side to side, and waves washed over its deck from stem to stern.

The flight mechanic Erik Yaloomi was lowered by cable onto the ship. In English he described to the captain how to harness to the cable and the captain explained it to the sailors in their language. Erik helped harness each sailor. In the first round three sailors were raised to the hill above the port. Thousands of spectators ran towards the helicopter. "Mortal danger" the helicopter pilot recounted later. The next round arrived at the Hassan Bek mosque. Thousands also arrived there. Ezer Weizman, commander of the Israeli Air Force, and his son, came to the site and helped direct the helicopter to land. The sailors were evacuated in five rounds. Magen David Adom ambulances waited in each round and transported the sailors to the port of Jaffa, where port workers received them, brandy bottles in hand. The captain was raised last. As he harnessed himself to the cable he held the ship's log in his hands. Erik took the log from him so that he could ascend safely. In the final hover an accident nearly occurred. The cable got caught on one of the rescue boats, but the pilot managed to get free and continue the rescue. Finally, Erik was raised after waiting another half hour on the tossing ship, the ship's log in his hand.

Reception on land
On Saturday evening after the end of the Sabbath, a party was held at a Jaffa nightclub. The commander of the Israeli Air Force and helicopter crew arrived at the club. The Greeks, who had left their belongings on board, came in work clothes, some without shoes. The sailors returned and thanked the air force and navy again. A band played Greek songs and a Greek singer sang and danced with the survivors.

Erik Yaloomi received a letter of appreciation from the IAF chief for "initiative...perseverance...precision action...flawless execution...and self-endangerment".

All the daily newspapers went beyond their usual coverage in describing the dramatic rescue, some even compared it to the Andromeda legend. The story also reached overseas. Sikorsky Aircraft published the picture with the sailor on the helicopter cable.

Aftermath
Two Greek tugboats were sent the next day by the ship owners from the Piraeus port. Before the ship could be towed, the rocks it was stuck on had to be blasted. Only after two months was the ship towed to Haifa. There, after inspection, the insurance company Lloyd's was to decide whether to repair it or turn it into scrap metal.