Rosalie Moller

The dive

The Rosalie Moller was launched on 12 December 1909 as the Francis by Barclay Curle & Co. in Glasgow: a 3,963-ton collier, 108.2 m long, 15 m in the beam, good for 11 knots. She carried coal around Britain and Europe for the Booth Steamship Company through the 1910s and 1920s, was sold to Moller Line Ltd in 1931 and spent the following decade on the China coast out of Shanghai. In August 1941 the Ministry of War Transport requisitioned her and loaded her with Welsh coal for Alexandria. She was anchored at Safe Anchorage H in the Gulf of Suez, waiting for a Suez Canal transit, when the same Luftwaffe raiding activity that destroyed the Thistlegorm found her. One bomb went into No 3 hold at 0045 hrs and she sank at 0140 hrs on 8 October 1941, 48 hours after the Thistlegorm. Captain Byrne's report records two crew missing.

She lies west of Gubal Sheghir, in the Strait of Gubal, on a sandy-muddy bottom, upright and on an even keel - and this is what makes her the wreck that experienced divers rate above the Thistlegorm. She is largely undisturbed: masts still standing with the crow's nest at about 22 m, decks intact, the starboard anchor still deployed, cargo in place, and heavy coral growth over everything. The bridge can be penetrated. The damage that does exist is mostly human: the bridge has been stripped, the captain's safe forced open, and the funnel was damaged in 2001 by someone trying to remove the copper whistle.

This is a deep dive and a liveaboard-only one. Published depths vary: the main deck at 30-32 m, a 28-39 m deck range, seabed at about 50 m, mast top from 17 m, bow around 40 m, and one database quoting 25-52 m. Operators ask for Advanced Open Water plus a deep or wreck specialty, and many want 50 or more logged dives. Sources also disagree about current: one liveaboard says strong current is rare on the wreck, another describes ever-present current and wind and rates the dive hard. Both agree it needs favourable weather. Visibility is quoted at 10-40 m and water between 19 and 28 C.

Our occurrence records for this site are very thin - a handful of records, headed by sergeant majors and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins - and they describe the surrounding water, not the wreck. Divers report the wreck itself as a fish magnet: enormous glassfish shoals through the bridge and around the masts, groupers, lionfish, bigeyes, and tuna and trevally patrolling outside.

• 3,963-ton British collier, ex-Francis (1909), bombed at Safe Anchorage H on 8 October 1941, 48 hours after the Thistlegorm
• Two crew killed; carrying Welsh coal for the war effort in North Africa
• Upright and remarkably intact: masts standing, crow's nest at about 22 m, anchor deployed, bridge penetrable
• Deep - main deck around 30-32 m, seabed near 50 m - and liveaboard-only
• Huge glassfish shoals, groupers and lionfish inside; tuna and trevally outside

Conditions

A deep, exposed, weather-dependent wreck dive. You descend a buoy line onto a main deck at about 30 m with the seabed near 50 m, on a sandy-muddy bottom west of Gubal Sheghir. Visibility is quoted anywhere from 10 to 40 m and rated fair; water is 19-28 C by season. Sources disagree on current, so assume it is there.

On current: Depth figures differ across sources and matter here. The main deck is put at 30-32 m by one liveaboard and 28-39 m by another guide, the mast top from about 17 m, the bow around 40 m, and the seabed at about 50 m; one dive-site database quotes 25-52 m. We record 30-50 m: deck to seabed. Current is genuinely contested - one liveaboard states strong current is rare on the wreck, while a dive-site database describes 'ever present current and winds' and rates the dive hard. Take the conservative reading and plan for current. Visibility is quoted at 10-40 m and rated 'fair'; we record the conservative 10 m. Water runs 19-28 C by season.

Dives & underwater footage