SS Thistlegorm

Overview

The SS Thistlegorm lies in the shallow lagoon of Sha’ab Ali, in the Strait of Gubal at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez, roughly 40 km from Sharm el-Sheikh and within reach of Hurghada. She is a British cargo steamship of 4,898 gross tons, built by J.L. Thompson and Sons of Sunderland in 1940 for the Albyn Line, armed with a 4-inch low-angle gun and a 3-inch anti-aircraft gun on her stern — a merchant vessel dressed for war. She sits largely upright on a sand bottom, her seabed depth generally reported between 30 and 32 metres, the main deck considerably shallower.

Why divers come

Most famous wrecks are famous for being ships. The Thistlegorm is famous for what is still inside her. The holds remain packed with the materiel she was carrying when she died, laid out much as it was stowed in 1941, and the effect of finning over rows of motorcycles in the dark is closer to walking a museum store than to conventional wreck diving. She is routinely named the best wreck dive in the Red Sea and one of the best anywhere in the world, and the traffic she attracts reflects that.

The dive

Dives are almost always run from a mooring or shot line, and on a running tide that line is not optional — it is how you get down and back without being swept off the wreck. A typical first dive tours the exterior: the stern gun platform, the blast damage amidships, the two steam locomotives thrown clear of the ship, the deck structures. A second dive usually enters the forward holds. Interiors are dark, silty and edged with sharp corroded steel. Buoyancy discipline matters more here than depth does.

The cargo and the wreck’s history

She sailed from Glasgow on 2 June 1941, routed the long way around Africa, bound for Alexandria with supplies for British forces in North Africa. Her manifest included Bedford trucks, Universal Carriers, Norton and BSA motorcycles, Bren guns and .303 rifles, aircraft parts, rubber boots, railway wagons and two LMS Stanier Class 8F steam locomotives carried as deck cargo. Waiting at anchor in the Gulf of Suez, she was found on the night of 5–6 October 1941 by two Heinkel He 111 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 26. Bombs struck hold 4, detonating ammunition; the explosion tore the ship open and threw both locomotives off the deck. She sank in minutes. Nine men were lost — sailors and DEMS naval gunners — while survivors were picked up by HMS Carlisle moored nearby. Jacques Cousteau located her in the early 1950s on information from local fishermen, recovering a motorcycle, the ship’s bell and the captain’s safe, and publicising her in the February 1956 National Geographic. She then slipped from view until recreational diving resumed in the early 1990s. Exact dates differ between accounts.

Marine life

She is a wreck first and a reef second, but decades of growth have made her productive. Soft corals and sponges coat the railings and masts, glassfish swarm the interiors, and batfish, giant trevally, barracuda, moray eels, lionfish, scorpionfish, crocodilefish and stingrays are all commonly reported. Turtles turn up occasionally.

Conditions & who should dive it

Advanced Open Water or equivalent is the working standard, and Egypt’s CDWS is widely cited by operators as requiring a minimum of 20 logged dives. Currents here are strong, tidal and unpredictable, sometimes reported around two knots, and can change during a dive. Visibility is usually decent but is degraded by silt kicked up by the many groups on the wreck at once. Multiple boats commonly share moorings, so expect crowding and other divers in the holds. Penetration is an overhead environment: it requires appropriate wreck training, a primary and backup torch, a competent guide and a clear exit. Live ammunition and ordnance remain aboard — do not disturb it.

When to go

She is dived year-round. Spring and autumn are generally the sweet spot for a balance of comfortable water and settled seas. Summer is warm, up to around 30°C in the shallows. Winter is cooler, roughly the low twenties Celsius, and often calmest and clearest, though hard northerly winds can and do cancel day trips outright.

Getting there

Day boats run from Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, but the transit is long and weather-dependent, and you typically get two rushed dives inside the busiest window of the day. Red Sea liveaboards on northern wreck itineraries are the better option: they overnight on site and dive her early or late, away from the crowds.

A note on protection & respect

The Thistlegorm is a war grave. Nine men died aboard her and the site should be dived accordingly. Removing artefacts is looting and is illegal under Egyptian antiquities law. The wreck is also visibly deteriorating from corrosion, surge and years of mooring damage; HEPCA installed mooring buoys in 2007 with mixed results, and an archaeological survey led by the University of Nottingham with Ain Shams and Alexandria universities has built a baseline 3D record to monitor her decline. Take nothing, touch nothing, and keep your fins off her.