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Ert, who has changed his name to Aerbel and now lives in Herzliya, was a member of an Israeli "hit team" that in 1973 killed an Arab waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, in the mistaken belief that he was a Palestinian terrorist responsible for the Munich massacre of eleven Olympic athletes. A native of Copenhagen who maintained Danish and Israeli citizenship, Ert tried to win his release by telling his flabbergasted Norwegian interrogators that he was a Mossad agent. To prove it, he mentioned that he "owned the ship" that had secretly carried uranium for Israel. (Ert has since denied saying this.) Ert also gave his captors the secret phone number of Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv. He was convicted of participating in a murder and imprisoned for seven months.
After Biscayne Traders bought the Scheersberg A, in September 1968, the first of many new crews came aboard. But in Rotterdam, on Nov. 15, a Biscayne Traders representative falsely told the crew—composed largely of Spaniards—that they were no longer needed because the ship had been sold again. On the next day, the uranium was loaded in Antwerp, and a hand-picked crew of Israelis boarded the ship for its mysterious voyage.
Only those aboard know precisely what happened during the 15 days after the Scheersberg A left Antwerp. The ship's officers cannot be traced because they had forged passports and false identities. But one of TIME'S sources talked with a former Israeli crew member in 1973, in the Ivory Coast. According to the sailor, after leaving Antwerp the Scheersberg A sailed straight for the waters between Cyprus and Iskenderun. Without breaking radio silence, it made a rendezvous at night with an Israeli ship that carried a special winch. As two Israeli gunboats hovered near the freighters, the barrels of uranium were transferred in total darkness. Except for an occasional Hebrew command, no one spoke. The uranium, TIME'S sources believe, went to the Israeli port of Haifa, approximately 110 nautical miles from the rendezvous, and the Scheersberg A headed northeast to Iskenderun.
Arrived Empty. Port records confirm that the Scheersberg A arrived empty on Dec. 2. Three days later, most of the Spanish crew who had been dismissed in Rotterdam on Nov. 15 were called back to the ship at Palermo. Curious about its recent travels, some crewmen looked for the ship's log. They found that the pages for the previous 21/2 weeks had been ripped out.
For almost a year, the Scheersberg A carried out normal freight duties in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Meanwhile, construction of five missile and torpedo gunboats purchased by Israel neared completion in the French port of Cherbourg. The boats were paid for by Israel, but France had halted all military trade with Arabs and Israelis. On Nov. 17, 1969, five weeks before the Israelis seized the gunboats, the Scheersberg A crew was again told that the ship had been sold. A new crew came aboard, and another mystery voyage began. Port records show that the ship left Almeria, Spain, for a course through the Strait of