Thistlegorm
Sha'ab Ali, Egypt
The Siege of Tobruk was the lengthiest confrontation between Allied and Axis powers in the North African Campaign of World War II, occupying the better part of a year, with both sides fighting with extremely long supply lines. In October 1941, the British-armed merchant ship Thistlegorm was at anchor north of the Straits of Gubal, waiting for the Suez Canal to open so it could complete the final leg of a journey to resupply the British Eighth Army.
The area was considered safe, but two German bombers, returning from a fruitless mission to bomb the Queen Mary, proved otherwise. They needed something on which to rid of their bomb-load, and the 415-foot Thistlegorm was in the wrong place at the right time.
Part of the ship's cargo consisted of munitions, so the surviving crew lost no time in abandoning ship. Their haste was merited. Ten minutes later, Thistlegorm exploded and sank to a 115-foot bottom.
Today, Thistlegorm looks like a fairly intact ship that has been stepped on by a wading giant just aft of where its smokestack once stood. There is the bow and bridge, then a huge bomb-smashed depression and finally, the still-standing stern.
The wreck has suffered somewhat at the hands of looters, the first of whom appears to have been Jacques-Yves Cousteau. His documentaries from his 1956 dives on the wreck show the ship's bell in place, but when the wreck was rediscovered by Red Sea divers in the mid-'90s, the bell (as well as one of the motorcycles) was gone.
Nonetheless, the vessel still contains trucks, motorcycles, a railway locomotive, a tank car and enough unexploded ordnance to make "look, but don't touch" excellent advice for anyone diving the wreck.
And Thistlegorm is much more than a history lesson. The wreck attracts large schools of baitfish. Get on it early enough, and you're apt to see blacktip sharks, grouper and tuna breakfasting on the passing parade.
Quick Guide:
Sinai Divers diving centers (sinaidivers .com) has PADI Dive Resorts or Centers at six dive-centric locations, including Sharm el Sheikh, as well as four live-aboard dive boats visiting Thistlegorm and other prominent Red Sea dive locations. The Egyptian Tourism Office (egypt.travel) is the best single-point source for information about travel to Red Sea destinations in Egypt.
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