Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Page 176 shows David Gutmann's name as David Leo Gutman.

Despite the Palestine Blockade, the British wouldn’t fire on civilian vessels, though occasionally they’d ram one.
David Irving Gutmann cites “Once the Royal Marines got aboard, some of them could be pretty rough, We were always caught by the British. What can you do against radars, long-range spotting planes and fast destroyers? It was civil disobedience.”
When the British captured Ben Hecht Abril, David Gutmann and his fellow crew members declared themselves American seamen, and were interned into Akko Prison כלא עכו. When the news spread around the world that American sailors were rescuing European Jews, the British, not wanting the negative publicity, quickly repatriated the Yanks. David Irving Gutmann cites: “They made us sign statements that we’d never do this again, On the basis of that, I immediately broke my parole.”

David Gutmann travelled throughout Europe and the Middle East as a merchant seaman,
After the war, David Gutmann cites: he wasn’t ready to attend college. He “was kicking around, looking for the next thing to do,” when he got word in a union hall that the Haganah, was looking for sailors to smuggle Holocaust survivors out of war-torn Europe and into British-controlled Palestine.
David Gutmann didn’t have much knowledge of Zionist politics, although he came from a strong Zionist background.
In 1905, his grandfather, as part of the Second Aliyah, emigrated to Palestine between 1904 and 1914.