The Thistlegorm is a 126 m British transport ship sunk by German bombers in October 1941 in the Strait of Gubal, still carrying the cargo she was taking to the Eighth Army. Motorcycles, Bedford trucks, rifles, Wellington boots and two steam locomotives are all still in and around the holds. She lies at 16 to 32 m and is the reason people book a long day out of Hurghada.
- Depth
- 16-32 m
- Visibility
- 15–25 m
- Season
- Apr - Oct
- Boat ride
- 210 min
- Difficulty
- Advanced
SS Thistlegorm
The plan of the reef
On the chart
SS Thistlegorm
210 min from the marina
Topography and dive profile
The hull sits upright on sand, broken open amidships where the bomb went in and threw the deck cargo clear. The shallowest structure is around 16 m, the deck sits at roughly 20 to 25 m, and the sand at the stern and the propeller run to about 32 m.
The holds are the dive. Hold 1 has boots and motorcycles, hold 2 has trucks with motorcycles stacked on them, rifles, aircraft wings and tailplanes. Universal Carriers sit on the deck. The two locomotives were blown off the ship by the explosion and lie on the sand either side of her, which is the image most divers come away with. Trevallies and batfish work the wreck, and a resident school of glassfish fills the darker spaces.
What you'll see
- ◇Glassfish in the holds
- ◇Batfish
- ◇Trevallies
- ◇Moray eels
- ◇Scorpionfish on the cargo
Who it suits
PADI Advanced Open Water. The deck is at 20 to 25 m, current can run along the wreck, and the interesting parts are inside the holds · that combination is not a place to be finding your buoyancy. Nitrox helps here more than at any other site we run, because the bottom time is what limits the dive rather than the air.
When the captain runs this site
A dedicated long day, not part of the normal rotation. Three to four hours each way depending on wind and sea, two dives on the wreck, and a start earlier than the usual 08:00. It runs on request and needs the weather to agree · the captain will not commit to it on a forecast he does not like.