Thistlegorm

Overview

The SS Thistlegorm is the most famous shipwreck in the Red Sea. The British 129-meter-long cargo ship sank with the armaments it was delivering to North Africa. At a depth of 31 meters the remains of the ship formed an artificial reef on a sandy flat surface and serves as a habitat for a huge number of different representatives of marine fauna.

The minimum certification level is Advanced Open Water Diver .

Cargo ship “Thistlegorm”

Type: merchant ship

Country: Britain

Year of construction: 1940

Tonnage: 9009 tons

Date of sinking: 6.10.1940

Reason for sinking: air attack

Location: Gubal Strait between Shaab Ali Reef and the Sinai coast.

Distance to shore: about 18 miles

Minimum depth: 18 meters

Maximum depth: 31 meters

Interesting facts:

⁃ She was built by Joseph L Thompson & Sons in Sunderland.

⁃ She cost £115,000.

⁃ She was owned by the Albyn Line, founded in 1901 by William Black and Walter B Allan.

⁃ She was christened by Mrs K W Black and launched on 9 April, 1940

⁃ The SS Thistlegorm weighted 4,900 tonnes and could comfortably reach a speed of 10 knots.

⁃ The ship was part of a convoy of 16 ships heading to Alexandria resupplying the British 8th Army at Tobruk.

⁃ Recent studies suggest she was mainly carrying supplies for the RAF and probably had enough to set up a whole airfield.

⁃ The Rosalie Moller – another great Red Sea wreck – was sunk three days after the Thistlegorm a few miles away.

⁃ The Thistlegorm was featured in Cousteau’s 1956 documentary The Silent World, and in a 1956 edition of National Geographic magazine.

⁃ Dr Adel Taher, the founder of Sharm’s Hyperbaric Medical Centre,
‘rediscovered’ the wreck in the early 1990s with three friends and dived it in secret for two years before others discovered its whereabouts.

⁃ Most of the cargo remained on board – although medical supplies disappeared.

⁃ There were more than 100 motorbikes aboard the Thistlegorm.

⁃ Tuna, barracuda, batfish, moral eels, lionfish, scorpionfish and turtles are all regularly seen on and around the wreck.