S.S.Thistlegorm

The S.S. Thistlegorm, still under construction in 1939

While looking into the origins of some of the photos in my recent post "Underwater Motorcycles", several were found to come from a scuba diving site located in the Red Sea. The site is a shipwreck in fairly shallow (15m to the bow and 30m to the seabed)and clear water, which makes it popular and well photographed. The ship in question is the S.S. Thistlegorm, a Merchant Navy vessel that journeyed from Glasgow Scotland, all the way around the tip of South Africa to avoid conflicts in the Mediterranean, eventually making it's way into the Red Sea as it steamed toward northern Africa with plans to enter the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.
Despite the long detour around the Cape Of Good Hope to avoid detection and danger, the fate of the Thistlegorm turned out to involve a bit of bad luck. A ships collision in the Suez Canal meant she had to wait in a 'safe anchorage site' until such time as the canal was cleared. German intelligence had suspected troop carriers were sailing near Egypt and had sent out bombers to destroy those ships. None were found but the bombers inadvertently came across the Thistlegorm, and accompanying Light Cruiser HMS Carlisle, in their anchorage site and dropped two bombs on the Thistlegorm. Nine crew members were killed and the shipment of Bedford trucks, Bren guns, rifles, two locomotives and a lot of BSA and Norton motorcycles ended up at the bottom of the sea.
As you'll see from the diagram below, the ship is relatively intact, with mostly the midsection having been destroyed by the bombs. Jacques Cousteau first explored the wreck after talks with local fishermen led him to its' location in 1956. It remained undisturbed until the 90's, when Sharm El Sheikh began to blossom as a diving destination. Unfortunately, the popularity of the wreck as a diving site has led to some deterioration of the slowly rotting ship, as dive boats moor directly to the ship and cause damage. The ship and cargo are still in fairly good condition however, as you can see by the many photos shown here.

3D detail of the wreck

I think the tread on that tire is still pretty good despite all this time underwater

The Bedford trucks are still intact, including windshields, even after 76 years

She was a fairly big boat, with a big prop

Hard to say what some of the cargo was after being covered in barnacles, but I believe this is the deck winch

There is a book about the ship and wreck, with a photo of one of the locomotives on its' cover.

The stern of the Thistlegorm

This eel is standing guard over a Wellington boot that was part of the cargo

The barnacles and sea life make this weapon of war a beautiful looking thing.