Shmuel Tankus

Shmuel Tankus was born in 1914 in Tel Aviv

Shmuel Tankus was born in 1914 in the Neve Shalom neighborhood of Jaffa. His family came from a clan from the Caucasus. He studied at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv and spent summers on his uncle's farm in Sejera.

He enrolled in agronomy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but his plans changed and he turned to the sea. In 1930 he joined the Hapoel naval company through the Haganah and became an instructor. He also trained in signaling and taught it.

During the Aliyah Bet period he helped bring immigrants to the country, finding landing sites and escorting ships from Europe. From 1943 he ran sailing courses at Kibbutz Sdot Yam and later led a Palmach naval unit. He taught coastal navigation and astronomy at the nautical school in Haifa.

After the UN vote in 1947 he helped found the Israeli Navy. He took command of the navy in 1954 and led it in the Sinai War. During his term the navy received destroyers and its first submarine, and he retired in 1960.

He married Yafa Grobshtein in 1942 and lived in Haifa from 1952. In 2001 Haifa named him a Friend of the city. He died in 2012.