 Purchased secretly in 1946 by the Jewish nationalist organization Haganah and renamed "Exodus 1947", the ship was briefly in the world spotlight as one of several vessels illegally attempting to carry Jewish refugees to British-controlled Palestine.This unsuccessful incident was later the subject of the 1958 novel "Exodus" by Baltimorean Leon Uris, (1924-2003) and the motion picture based upon it, released in 1960.The ship remained in Haifa harbor until it burned to the waterline in 1952, and was later scrapped.