Red Sea wrecks

The Red Sea offers good diving all year round, but May to September is the period for greater fish numbers, when you will see shoals of fish numbering thousands.

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When to go
The Red Sea offers good diving all year round, but May to September is the period for greater fish numbers, when you will see shoals of fish numbering thousands. Some liveaboards do not visit the northern sites featured in this Real Guide all year round, instead offering southern itineraries from January to April. A plankton bloom in April to May may cause visibility to drop for a week or two, but otherwise it is usually in excess of 20m in summer, and in winter is often more than 30m. The frequent presence of a stiff breeze can make the surface choppy and access to more exposed sites is not always guaranteed.

Where to go
Although more than 30 northern Red Sea wrecks are currently visited by liveaboards, listed below are the most popular…
The Thistlegorm at Sha’ab Ali is the most famous wreck in the Red Sea, with an amazing cargo of aircraft parts, steam locomotives, motorcycles, wellington boots, rifles and ammunition. The ship was sunk in 1941 by German bombers during her last journey, from Glasgow, to supply British troops in North Africa. Discovered by Jacques Cousteau in the 1950s, the Thistlegorm was little dived until the 1990s.

Of the seven wrecks at Abu Nuhas the Carnatic and Giannis D are perhaps the best known. The Carnatic, a mail steamer, sank in 1869 when she hit the reef en route to Bombay, carrying 230 passengers, 27 of whom drowned, and a cargo of gold and copper, much of which was salvaged. The wreck was discovered in 1984. The nearby Giannis D, a Greek cargo ship, sank in 1983 and now lies in two separate parts on the sea bed. Part of the wreck is within only 4m of the surface, which contributes to its popularity with photographers.

The Dunraven sank in 1876 after colliding with the reef at Sha’ab Mahmud, and was first dived in 1979. Although the wreck is completely upside down, the interior can be explored.

The Rosalie Moller, was bound for Alexandria when she was sunk in 1941 near Gubal Island by German bombers. First dived in 1993, the wreck is still in good condition – partly due to its relatively deep depth, which means the ship is less visited than other wrecks.
• Wreck information from Peter Collings’ Shipwrecks of the Red Sea

What to wear
In summer you may need only a 3mm one-piece, but from December to March you will probably need a 7mm two-piece or a drysuit for comfortable diving.

What to look out for
While you’re likely to see many of the usual Red Sea favourites, such as damselfish, triggerfish, surgeonfish and parrotfish, on and around wrecks, the shelter they offer particularly appeals to certain types of fish. These include: moray eels, lionfish, large, solitary barracuda, grouper and shoals of glassfish. Look more closely and you’ll see pipefish, nudibranchs, coral shrimps and camouflaged crocodilefish, while outside the superstructure there are often shoals of snapper, bream, batfish and tuna, with solitary eagle rays and turtles.

Water and air temperatures
Red Sea weather is always dry and sunny. From May to September the air temperature is 38–41°C, and from October to April it is 23–29°C. Water temperatures range from 24–28°C in summer to 19–24°C otherwise.


Pristine condition - John Steele

John Steele, 38, comes from Larne, County Antrim and is a civil servant. A member of Barracuda SAC, Larne, he’s a BSAC advanced diver and club instructor. His wife, Elaine and two daughters are non-divers. His week on the liveaboard Eshta in October 2002 was booked through DIVEChannel.

Three of us from Barracuda decided to go to the Red Sea, so we looked at holidays on the Internet and found a few we fancied on DIVEChannel. The first one we asked about was full, so Debbie [at DIVEChannel] found us something else. It was my first time in the Red Sea, and it was brilliant – I loved it. The wrecks we dived were the Thistlegorm, the Giannis D, an unknown wreck off the south side of Abu Nuhas, which was quite broken up, and the Dunraven.

We did four dives on the Thistlegorm, the first being a night dive with no appreciable current. We mostly stuck to the deck area at 18–20m, went inside the superstructure where there were some large morays – and scooted into a hole to see the motorcycles and trucks. A big turtle appeared out the gloom, which was quite scary! Of course, we couldn’t appreciate the scale of the wreck, but the next morning we had the best dive of the trip. There was one other boat at the site when we got up at 5.30am, but we were the first in the water. We saw the locomotive lying to the side of the wreck and clearly saw the damage from the bomb blast. The tangle of wreckage at the back was a poignant symbol of the ship’s history. The marine life was impressive: we saw big barracuda, batfish, jacks, morays, miniature pipefish and shoals of tuna. The dolphins arrived just as we got out – isn’t that always the way? The dayboats also arrived at that point, so with a longish surface interval we did our second dive as they finished their first, which was excellent timing. Our dive guide was a very enthusiastic Japanese lad who made sure we dived the best sites at the best times.

I dive the east coast of Ireland a lot, where there are many wrecks, but they’re badly broken up, and of course the visibility and fish life aren’t on a par with the Red Sea. By comparison the Thistlegorm was in pristine condition, and absolutely fascinating. My second-favourite site was the Dunraven. The guide took us down the side and we swam almost the whole length of the wreck. What sticks in my mind are the glassfish inside – it was teeming with them. The Giannis D was also very good, with the superstructure close to the surface, but it was terrible to see so many divers chasing a huge Napoleon wrasse. One thing I wasn’t really prepared for was the number of boats at each site – sometimes there were up to 14, and it was like a car park. We could see that they’re still building resorts, so even more people will be going there. The visibility was usually 20–30m, although we did get only 2m on one night dive, but we didn’t stay in the water long.

The boat was excellent, the crew were very helpful, and the food was surprisingly good. I didn’t have great expectations, as we’d heard stories from another group, who went on a different liveaboard, who all became ill – some even missed two days of diving. We all went well equipped for tummy upsets, but everyone was fine.
The boat was quite small and took 16 guests. There are two cabins that aren’t en suite, one of which I was in, but I think we got the better deal, as our cabins were up on deck and we could open the door at night – I found the air-conditioning too cold! There was almost the full complement on our trip, with 15 divers from around the UK diving as two groups. There was plenty of space for kitting up though, as each group went at slightly different times. Doing three or four dives a day was tiring, but I loved getting straight out of bed and into the sea. I should think that two-tank shore dives are more exhausting – a liveaboard’s more relaxing, as you’re not struggling with your gear.

This was my first trip on a liveaboard and I was concerned about getting seasick, but the boat was very stable and no one was ill at all for the whole week. I’d also been a wee bit sceptical about going to the Red Sea, as I’d heard that there were so many divers that the wrecks and reefs were getting damaged, but I found the whole thing thoroughly enjoyable, and I might well go to the southern Red Sea next year. Don’t be put off by stories about the wrecks starting to deteriorate, particularly those concerning the Thistlegorm, as although the lorries and motorcycles are beginning to rot they are very recognisable and can still be appreciated.


Official secrets - Jon Elston

Jon Elston, 37, runs a construction business and lives in Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire. He learned to dive eight years ago, and his wife, Andrea, and two children are all aspiring divers. His first trip to the Red Sea, in November 2002, was organised by Aquatours, and included three days on the liveaboard Oriana and four days in the Hyatt Regency in Na’ama Bay, Sharm El Sheikh.

I went to the Red Sea with three friends and we’d decided before we booked that we fancied a bit of both – liveaboard and landbased. A lot of firms didn’t want to book us for less than a week on a liveaboard, but Kirk at Aquatours did. We went out on my birthday, and Kirk organised a cake and a crate of beer for when we got there. We’d decided against a whole week on a boat because we were worried we’d get stuck with people we didn’t get on with, but it was brilliant fun. Once we were on the Oriana, we asked if we could stay beyond our three days, but other people were booked to get on, so we couldn’t. The boat was the best fun, and that was definitely to do with the people – we’re booking for next year and will spend all our time on a liveaboard.

On the first day we dived the Dunraven and spent that night moored over the Thistlegorm. There were three dives on the Thistlegorm, then we dived our way back to Na’ama Bay. We only did one dive on the Dunraven. There’s not a great deal to see, as it’s the wrong way up for a start. You can see the boilers, and the propeller’s quite nice but there’s not much life on it. I poked around looking for morays, but didn’t find any, which was surprising. The reef to the side of the wreck is full of life, and is better to dive on.

We got to know the dive leader, Andrew Mackenzie, who is a superb technical diver and well into the wrecks. The first night, as we were moored over the Thistlegorm, he told us the full story of how a German plane was looking for the Queen Mary, but bombed the Thistlegorm instead. The story of Hold Three was very interesting, as there’s nothing in it. The book we read claims that it possibly held fuel, which was all used in its long journey from Scotland, but we were told that the British Army dived the wreck and cut into the hold, taking away whatever was there. Under the Official Secrets Act, which lasts for 50 years, we should now know what was in there, but it was held over for another 50 years for this particular case. I go with the theory that it held chemicals, which might also explain why there were wading boots on a boat heading for the desert [the Thistlegorm was delivering supplies to the British Army in North Africa]. These are full-size waders, and they weren’t going to be fishing in the desert. Maybe the waders were going to be used to keep their trousers clean while they were riding the motorbikes?

I would have loved to have made more than the three dives we did on the Thistlegorm, and would particularly have liked to take a closer look at the stern, which we only visited quickly. On the first dive we looked at the cabins, the second at all the holds and the rope room, and the third was a chill-out dive, with no current, which I spent swimming round it to get an idea of the wreck’s size. It was only on the second dive that I could begin to look properly and study what was down there – on the first dive it just looked like a mass of things. The visibility was about 20m, with a fairly strong current on the first two dives, and there were only three other boats out there. We didn’t see the other groups, as they were coming up as we went down, but we did notice that the big fish started to arrive as we left, so it’s probably best to dive it early in the morning or right at the end of the day. The big fish seemed to go out to the blue to wait until divers have left the wreck. The Thistlegorm was superb – it’s a shame I didn’t dive it when it was new to divers, as lots of things have been stolen now.

The reefs weren’t brilliant. You have to pay to dive Ras Mohammed, which is a marine reserve, but the reefs there weren’t as good as Jackson, Thomas and Woodhouse reefs, where we saw white-tip reef sharks and turtles. The coral garden at Ras Mohammed was quite good, and I enjoyed seeing what’s left of the wreck of the Yolanda, which sank in 1980 and lay on a reef at Ras Mohammed for several years before sliding into water too deep for divers. I thought Na’ama Bay was a bit bland. I’ve been a bit spoiled by diving the Medes Islands in Spain every year, where the marine life is better than in Na’ama Bay. I expected bigger fish in the Red Sea – at the Medes Islands there are groupers as big as I am, but there wasn’t much that size in the Red Sea. The water was 26°C and I just wore shorts, as I wanted the freedom of being without a wetsuit. You still need a lot of weight, though, as the water’s so salty. The weather was good until the last couple of days, when the sea became quite rough.

Next year we’re planning to do a wreck tour, which will be seven days of pure heaven. I like the colours on the reef and the pretty fish, but there’s something about wrecks. They have a mystery about them, especially when you’re told the story behind them.


Poignant history - Chris Hazlehurst

Chris Hazlehurst, 42, is a diving course director and the training manager at Looe Divers in Cornwall. He learned to dive on the Great Barrier Reef in 1995, and has made 18 trips to dive in the Red Sea, the most recent aboard the Cyclone liveaboard. This holiday was booked through Tony Backhurst, and was dedicated to wreck diving, being led by the photographer and Red Sea wreck expert Peter Collings.

The trip on the Cyclone was at the end of August 2002, but the water conditions were slightly choppy, more like October. As a result we were unable to dive four of the 18 wrecks planned on our ‘grand tour’, but instead did multiple dives on some of the others.

The Rosalie Moller is a phenomenal dive. A similar style of ship to the Thistlegorm, she was anchored, waiting to go through the Suez Canal, when she was bombed and hit in hold Number Four. At 48m, the wreck is deeper than the Thistlegorm, and not quite as big, but is fully intact. All the railings are still there, as well as the portholes and the bridge windows. The coral is pristine and the marine life prolific – on one dive I was videoing and had to send the dive guide ahead to part the fish because they were so dense. The ship is so complete – even the bow flagstaff is still there – and the wreck is fully penetrable. The only damage is from the bombing.

As the wreck is so deep, you don’t have long down there – and the location of the Rosalie Moller means that it’s much less dived than other Red Sea wrecks. Peter doesn’t have the sole right to take groups onto it, but most other dive leaders don’t know the exact location. Most of the dives on our trip were preceded by slide presentations, either of the wreck, to pick out features, or of the boat’s history. This was particularly useful on the Rosalie Moller, as everyone felt as though they knew where they were, despite the narcosis!

In my opinion the Thistlegorm has become the biggest scrapheap in the Red Sea. Having made 50 dives on it, I have watched it deteriorate. On the Cyclone we dived the Thistlegorm four times, and I was just going around shaking my head. This time I saw that the foc’s’le starboard ladder had been ripped off its upper moorings and twisted. The problem is that too many divers are allowed on the wreck and many aren’t experienced enough not to damage it.

The dives on the Salem Express were all made with a great deal of respect – even before the trip, most of us were aware of the ship’s poignant history [she hit a reef near Safaga in 1991, drowning all but 180 of an unspecified number of religious pilgrims returning from Mecca. The highest estimate of passengers is 1,600] from TV footage. The wreck lies at 30m on the sea bed, and as we dived we all heard singing, which was quite spooky. When I ran through the video footage afterwards, the entire crew came to look, which they didn’t normally do, and we learned that every crew member had lost a relation on the wreck. The singing was the sound of Mohammed, one of the crew, praying.

Ali Baba, the famous deaf Red Sea dive guide, was also on board the Cyclone and between him and Peter they knew everything there is to know about Red Sea wrecks. The Red Sea’s a location notorious for shipping accidents, and Peter has been there so many times he’s seen a lot of wrecks going down. I even saw one accident myself, on Gordon Reef in August 2000, when a ship hit the wreck of the Louillia. Peter is passionate about the wrecks and as well as doing about 5,000 dives in the Red Sea, he has done a lot of research – he made the trip for me. He also has a very good sense of humour, and would do his utmost to facilitate any special requests.

While £800 for a week’s trip may seem a lot, it’s ultimately cheaper than a week using dayboats. A shore-based trip might seem cheaper, but you only get two or three dives a day, and you have to pay extra for trips to the Dunraven and Thistlegorm as well as paying for your evening meals. On a liveaboard there are four dives a day, you beat the day-boats to the site, and everything is included. Of all my trips to the Red Sea, including other liveaboard trips, this was the best.