The Zim-Israel Navigation Company marked its 15th anniversary yesterday by announcing plans for the addition to its fleet within the next three years of two new passenger vessels and 11 cargo ships. Dr. Naftali Wydra, Zim’s managing director, said that Israel’s merchant fleet would reach the 1,000,000-ton mark by 1970.
Dr. Wydra also announced plans for the inauguration next month of Israel’s first direct ocean service to the Pacific Coast with the sailing from Haifa of the freighter Natanya for West Coast ports. One of the vessels to be added to the company’s fleet will be a 23,000-ton passenger liner to be built at a cost of $15,000,000, Dr. Wydra said. The liner, which will be ready in 1963 for service on the New York-Haifa run, will be a fully air-conditioned luxury vessel accommodating 1,000 passengers.
The Israeli shipping official also announced that the company will take delivery next May of a 6,500-ton passenger vessel to enable the line to increase its Mediterranean cruise service out of New York. The new cruise liner, under construction at Nantes. France, will accommodate 650 passengers. It will be named the Moledet (Fatherland.)
Eleven cargo ships totaling 149,000 tons are to Join the Zim Line’s fleet before the middle of next year. Dr. Wydra said. At present the company’s fleet consists of 33 passenger and cargo vessels totaling 189,000 tons.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
