(26th May - 4th November 1973 and 28th May 1975 - 1st October 1993)
Ultimate fate
Scuttled, 28th November 1993
Above: two views of the MV Peace in New York 1972
Left: M V Peace in Marseilles 1974
Top right: MV Peace arrives at her final destination, 28th November 1993
Bottom right: MV Peace finally slips below the waves, 28th November 1993
Top right: MV Peace as Rolf in 1940
Centre and bottom right Two views of the MV Peace as Cito in 1969
Photos: Hans Knot
The ship was built in 1940 as MV Rolf and was the last vessel to leave Delfzijl harbour before the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940.
In 1950 the ship was renamed MV Westpolder.
In 1954 the ship was taken to the same wharf where it was built and some alterations were made on the bridge. The vessel sailed mainly in European waters, to Madeira and countries around the Mediterranean.
In 1960 she was renamed MV Cito.
On June 12th, 1969, Abie Nathan (on behalf of the Peace Foundation), purchased the Cito from its owners Paap, based in Haren near Groningen, The Netherlands. He announced that the ship would be taken Amsterdam, where she would be repainted in the white Peace colours.
In August 1969 the ship, now re-registered as MV Peace, sailed from Amsterdam to be fitted out in New York as a floating radio station. However problems with raising funding meant that the MV Peace was forced to stay in New York for just over three years until early 1973. Eventually sufficient funding was raised and the ship set sail for the Mediterranean where broadcasts from the Voice of Peace started in May 1973.
(Additional information courtesy Hans Knot)
After broadcasts from the Voice of Peace had ended the MV Peace sailed into Ashdod in October 1993 and all broadcasting equipment was removed.
On 28th November 1993 the MV Peace made her final voyage to a position 15 miles off the coast of Israel. Here the crew removed the hull plugs from the engine room and lower hold and switched the pumps to reverse, so that water was pumped into the ship. After about 7 hours the MV Peace finally sank.
Thanks to Martin van der Ven for allowing us to use some additional information from the Broadcasting Fleet section of the Offshore Radio Guide in this Gallery
