Built as a cargo- passenger vessel under yard No 691 by the Deutsche Werft, Hamburg for the Zim Israel Navigation Co. Ltd.
19 July 1955 launched under the name ZION.
Tonnage 9.855 gross, 5.473 net, 6.713 dwt, dim. 152.8 x 19.9m., length bpp. 138.6m, draught 27.7ft.
Powered by an AEG steam turbine, 10.500hp., speed 17.5 knots.
Accommodation for 323 passengers.
She was the first passenger vessel built for Israel.
09 March 1956 made her maiden voyage from Haifa to New York.
21 January 1966 sailed from New York for her last North Atlantic crossing to Haifa.
1966 Sold to Soc. Geral de Comercio Ind. E Transportes, Lisbon, renamed AMELIA DE MELLO.
Placed in the service between Portugal to Angola and Mozambique.
07 August 1971 laid up at Lisbon.
1972 Sold to Cia de Vap. Realma, Piraeus, Greece, renamed ITHACA and thereafter from May 1972 converted in a cruise vessel in Bilbao.
Accommodation for 780 passengers.
May 1973 made her first cruise under Greece flag in the Mediterranean.
1978 Transferred to Panama registry and renamed DOLPHIN IV.
1996 Sold to the Kosmos Group at South Carolina, USA, thereafter she sailed from mid-January 1996 from Port Canaveral and used in a two night year round party cruise to the Grand Bahamas. The Dolphin Cruise Line will operate the vessel, and Kosmos did handle all sales and marketing.
2003 Sold by unspecified Panama flag interests to Indian breakers, and she arrived 11 April 2003 at Alang, for her voyage to the breakers she was renamed in KHAW.
13 April 2003 demolition commenced.
On Israel 1958 1000p sg 146. scott 141.
Source: Navicula, Marine News 2003/500.