SS Shalom - Service History - 1964-1967: Zim Lines

1964-1967: Zim Lines

The brand-new Shalom begun her career with a series of short cruises out of Haifa, before embarking on her fully booked first crossing to New York on 17 April 1964. However, by the time she entered service the transatlantic liner trade was already in decline, with more passenger crossing the Atlantic by air than by sea since 1959. To make her better suited for cruise service, the Shalom was rebuilt in Holland in October 1964, increasing the number of first-class cabins.

Sometime after 2:00 on 26 November 1964, while 50 miles outbound from New York with 616 passengers, bound for the Caribbean in thick fog, the Shalom collided with the vegetable oil-carrying Norwegian tanker Stolt Dagali just outside Point Pleasant, New Jersey. The Shalom's bow cut the Stolt Dagali in half, killing nineteen of the tanker's forty-four crew. The tankers bow section remained floating, but her aft section sank in 130 feet (39.62 m) of water within seconds. Shalom's chief radio officer issued an all-ships plea for help; the US Coast Guard received the information at 2:25 am. Some 3½ hours later, the Coast Guard cutter Point Arden arrived at the scene, delayed for some time as the position provided had been 15 miles off course. Five of Stolt's seamen had been plucked from the sea by the Shalom within 30 minutes of the collision and were treated in the ships hospital for shock. The Point Arden picked up four crewmen, the rest being saved by helicopter.

The Shalom's bow was badly damaged, with a 40 foot gash over the waterline. Leaking into her number one hold, but afloat, she was able to slowly return to New York under her own power. Later, she was repaired by Newport News and Shipbuilding in Norfolk. During the inquiry that followed, her second mate testified that the ship's radar scope had been cluttered by noise and that work was being done to adjust it before the accident occurred. It also transpired that her lookout had been given permission for a coffee break just before the event, and was returning to the bridge when the collision happened.

The inquiry concluded that both ships had been at fault, with a majority of the blame falling on Shalom for not posting proper lookout and admitting to a malfunctioning radar. A dive to the wreck of the Stolt Dagali had shown her engine telegraph set to full speed, making her complicit in the accident.

In 1965, barely a year after the Shalom had been delivered, ZIM Lines made the decision to abandon transatlantic service, and their ships were sold off over the next two years. The Shalom stayed in ZIM service until November 1967, when she was sold to German Atlantic Line. Built at a time of general decline of transatlantic travel with the introduction of the jet, coupled with a restricted and expensive kitchen aimed at a niche clientele on mainline voyages and being reliant on government subsidies during a time of Israeli economic decline, ZIM no longer saw an economic case for her.