SS Quanza SS " Quanza " was a World War II - era Portuguese passenger - cargo ship , best known for carrying 317 people , many of them refugees , from Nazi - occupied Europe to North America in 1940 . At least 100 of its passengers were Jewish . Early history . Launched as " Portugal " , the vessel went into service in 1929 as " Quanza " . Her normal route was from Lisbon , Portugal , to Angola , South Africa and Mozambique , though some voyages were made to South America . AugustSeptember 1940 voyage . In August 1940 , " Quanza " was chartered by a group of passengers seeking to flee Europe , including French actors Marcel Dalio and Madeleine LeBeau . The passengers traveled with a variety of visa s , some of which were forged . Because the captain doubted the validity of the visas , he required that many passengers also buy return tickets on the likelihood that no country would admit them . The ship left Lisbon on 8 August , beginning its first trans - Atlantic voyage . After a difficult crossing that included a hurricane , the ship arrived in New York City on 19 August . 196 passengers disembarked , 66 of whom were American citizens . The remaining 121 passengers were denied entry , including nearly all of the Jewish passengers . " Quanza " proceeded to Veracruz , Mexico , where it arrived on 30 August . Only 35 passengers were allowed to disembark , leaving 86 on board , mostly Belgian Jews . The ship was then ordered to return to Europe , causing despair among the remaining passengers . The ship made a brief stop for coal in Norfolk , Virginia in the US . During the stop , Jacob Morewitz , a Jewish maritime lawyer from Newport News , filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of four of the refugees , suing the Portuguese National Line for $ 100 , 000 for breach of contract . The suit held " Quanza " in port for six days , during which time Jewish leaders , including Rabbi Stephen Wise of the World Jewish Congress and Cecilia Razovsky of the National Council of Jewish Women , lobbied for the remaining passengers ' admittance . Meanwhile , " Quanza " s passengers became so desperate that one leapt from the ship to swim for land ; though he reached shore successfully , he was quickly apprehended and returned to the boat . Following the incident , the ship ' s captain posted armed guards on the decks . When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was informed by Jewish - American associations of the situation , she appealed to her husband , President Franklin D . Roosevelt , who dispatched State Department official Patrick Murphy Malin to investigate the passengers ' status . Malin designated all 86 as political refugees and issued them visas , though six chose voluntarily to return to Europe . The eighty who remained in the US entered the country on 14 September . Some of the refugees later sent President Roosevelt roses with a note reading , " with everlasting gratitude for your humane gesture , from the refugees of the SS " Quanza " . " Assistant Secretary of State Breckenridge Long , who was nominally in charge of refugee issues , was enraged by the granting of visas to the " Quanza " refugees and insisted that it must not occur again . Long renewed his efforts to block immigration , and by mid - 1941 , almost no war refugees were allowed into the US . Fictional representations . In 1991 , Susan Lieberman and Jacob Morewitz ' s grandson Stephen Morewitz wrote a play about the events titled " Steamship Quanza " . Victoria Redel , whose father and grandmother had been on the voyage , published a novel about the ship ' s crossing in 2007 titled " The Border of Truth " .