Reply #38: Exploding a mine on board a ship...

[Englander]

will have one result; that ship sinking,with a hole in the hull.
Haganahs' intention was to scuttle the Patria,the only difference that the size of the explosives used made was to drastically reduce the amount of time that Patria took to sink. The intention was to create a small hole,instead a large hole was created.

" The Haganah leaders decided to prevent the Patria from leaving port by sabotage. A mine was prepared at Haifa, concealed in a cloth bag and smuggled aboard the ship, where it was handed over to one of the Haganah liaison officers. On November 25, 1940, at about 9 a.m. the mine was detonated. The intention was to blast a small hole in the vessel's side so that that it would slowly take in water allowing time to evacuate all those on board. However, the mine blasted a large hole and water flooded into the hold. Within 15 minutes the ship began to list with only a small portion remaining above water. Some 250 people (200 of them Jews, and most of the remainder British soldiers) went down with the ship. This was the largest number of victims of any single operation conducted by an organization since the beginning of British rule in Palestine."

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/irgunill.html