SS Thistlegorm (Wreck)

The dive

The Thistlegorm was a British cargo steamship, 126.5 m long, built in 1940 at J.L. Thompson and Sons in Sunderland. In October 1941 she was anchored at Safe Anchorage F in the Strait of Gubal, waiting to run supplies to the British Eighth Army in North Africa, when two German Heinkel He 111 bombers found the convoy while hunting a troop carrier. Two high-explosive bombs struck hold 4 in the early hours of 6 October 1941. The ammunition stored there detonated, tore the ship apart and sank her. Nine men died: four merchant sailors and five DEMS gunners. The wreck is a war grave.

She sits largely upright on sand at about 30 m, with the stern section broken and twisted away from the main hull by the explosion. The cargo is what makes the site: Bedford trucks, Universal Carrier armoured vehicles, Norton 16H and BSA motorcycles, rifles, ammunition and radio equipment in the holds, and two LMS Stanier Class 8F steam locomotives bound for Egyptian National Railways - one of which the blast threw clear of the deck. Jacques Cousteau found and filmed the wreck in the early 1950s; it was rediscovered by sport divers in the 1990s as Sharm El Sheikh developed, and has been dived hard ever since.

In practice it is run as two dives. The first is an external tour between roughly 18 and 30 m - bridge, deck guns, locomotives, propeller - and the second is a penetration of holds 1, 2 and 3 at 25-30 m where the trucks and motorcycles sit. Operators ask for Advanced Open Water as a minimum, and wreck training plus line-handling competence for anything beyond the open holds. Current is often strong, up to about two knots, and visibility is typically 15-25 m and drops as the day's divers stir the silt.

Our occurrence records for the wreck are dominated by Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, which use the nearby area, followed by common lionfish, giant moray, crocodilefish, twoband anemonefish, blotcheye soldierfish, bluespotted ribbontail ray, nudibranchs including Chromodoris quadricolor, broomtail wrasse, yellowbar angelfish and teira batfish. The wreck is also rusting away: Wikipedia records rapid natural disintegration made worse by dive boats mooring to the structure itself.

• 126.5 m British freighter sunk by German bombers on 6 October 1941; nine crew lost, and a war grave
• Upright on sand at about 30 m, stern twisted away where the ammunition in hold 4 detonated
• Holds full of Bedford trucks, Universal Carriers, Norton and BSA motorcycles, rifles and ammunition
• Two Stanier 8F locomotives, one thrown clear of the deck by the blast
• Usually two dives: external tour, then holds 1-3; often strong current and heavy boat traffic

Conditions

An offshore wreck in open water. Expect a live descent down a shot or mooring line into current that can run to about two knots, 15-25 m of visibility that gets worse as boats unload, and a wreck deck at 18-20 m falling to sand at 30-32 m. Operators plan around slack water and run two dives, external then holds.

On current: Operators describe an 18-32 m range - deck at the shallow end, cargo holds at 25-30 m, sand at about 30-32 m - and Wikipedia puts the wreck at approximately 30 m. Current is often strong and reaches around two knots, with separation on the descent and ascent lines a documented risk; dives are normally timed around slack. Visibility is typically 15-25 m and falls through the day as divers disturb silt inside the holds; we record the conservative 15 m.

Best months: Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov

Dives & underwater footage