SS Thistlegorm

The Thistlegorm lies upright in thirty metres in the Strait of Gubal, broken amidships where the bombs went in. She is the most-dived wreck in the Red Sea, and the reason is the cargo: holds two and three still hold Bedford trucks, BSA and Norton motorcycles, Bren gun carriers, aircraft parts, rubber boots and rifles, stacked as they were loaded.

Two dives are the normal shape of it — the exterior and the guns aft first, then a penetration of the holds where the light comes down through the deck breaks. The current can run hard, and the crossing from Hurghada takes several hours, which is why this is a full-day expedition rather than an ordinary boat trip.

The SS Thistlegorm was bombed by Heinkel He 111s on 6 October 1941 while at anchor awaiting passage through the Suez Canal, carrying supplies for the Allied Eighth Army in North Africa. Nine of her crew were lost. Jacques Cousteau located and dived the wreck in the early 1950s, then kept the position quiet; she was rediscovered by sport divers in the early 1990s.