Her Maiden Voyage

DAKAR was a WWII British “T-class” submarine being delivered on January 1968 to the Israelis after some modifications, upgrades, and complete sea trials.  The ship was en route from Portsmouth, England, to Haifa, Israel, via Gibraltar to join the operational fleet.

The submarine communicated with the Israeli Navy (IN) headquarters by HF-Morse code every 6 hours, with one daily position report at 6 a.m.  After reporting its position just past Crete and conducting three ensuing radio checks with no hint of trouble, transmissions from DAKAR ceased.

The last verified transmission was on 25 January 1968, just after midnight.  There were no weapons on the ship, but it was carrying an advanced, highly classified Electronics Intelligence system (ELINT).

It was the ship’s maiden voyage.