The National Israeli Museum of the Sea

The National Israeli Museum of the Sea , also known as the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum, an Israeli navy museum located in Haifa. It was founded in 1969.
The museum is named after David HaCohen, an Israeli politician and one of the leaders of the Jewish community.

The museum is dedicated to telling the story of the struggle for the right to immigrate to Israel during the years 1934 – 1948 when the British Mandate was in operation.

The first section of this exhibition deals with the early beginnings of Israel’s navy. This includes the story of the people who created the navy, as well as how the illegal immigration ships were transformed into war ships.

The second section depicts the 1950s, when Israel’s navy fleet first set sail throughout the length and breadth of the ocean deep, while her commando ships were gradually becoming more and more refined. Israel’s navy played its part in the Sinai War, even gaining significant reinforcements from an unexpected source to add to the already-existing number of destroyers.
 

The third section deals with the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. Starting with the stinging naval failures of the Six Day War, which were followed by two disasters in which heavy naval casualties were inflicted, the Israeli navy implemented dramatic changes which culminated in the truly astounding victories of the Yom Kippur War.
 

One of the most outstanding exhibits in this section is the Dakar submarine emergency buoy, which was discovered a year after the submarine sank. The submarine itself was not discovered for many years afterwards, despite the extensive searches for it.

The fourth section describes the progress of the Yom Kippur War, the coastal bombardment against the enemy and the fighting in the area of the Red Sea.

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