New deep wreck found in Hurghada, Red Sea

[paulvinten]

Just to let you all know about a newly discovered wreck just outside Hurghada (about 1.5 hours sailing north of the main port).
It's the wreck of the 125m long, 7600 ton ferry, Al Qamar Al Saudi Al Misri and was discovered by myself & Aaron Bruce at Tekstreme Diving based at Emperor Divers. It sunk on the 19th May 1994 after an explosion in the engine room & subsequent fire while carrying 505 passengers & 63 crew with the loss of 21 lives.
The wreck lies in 83m of water with a minimum depth of 64m on the port side hull. It is intact and lying on it's starboard side and makes for an absolutely fantastic dive in the Red Sea waters. We had a temperature of 25 degrees and 12 metre visibility when we dived it 4 days ago.
Look out in the various UK dive magazines for the news article, with a full article including pics appearing in Sport Diver in the next couple of months hopefully.
Cheers!

[Tazzie]

How exciting! Congratulations on the find - I presume you suspected where it was and went looking rather than just stumbling across it?!

[warmwaterdiver]

are you sure Peter Collings didn't find it first?

[abucksdiver]

Originally Posted by warmwaterdiver

are you sure Peter Collings didn't find it first?

Just what I was thinking....

[Hellenic Diver]

Originally Posted by abucksdiver

Just what I was thinking....

yes..but he hid it to keep it safe, although rumour has it its a russian spy ferry

[gobfish1]

Originally Posted by paulvinten

Just to let you all know about a newly discovered wreck just outside Hurghada (about 1.5 hours sailing north of the main port).
It's the wreck of the 125m long, 7600 ton ferry, Al Qamar Al Saudi Al Misri and was discovered by myself & Aaron Bruce at Tekstreme Diving based at Emperor Divers. It sunk on the 19th May 1994 after an explosion in the engine room & subsequent fire while carrying 505 passengers & 63 crew with the loss of 21 lives.
The wreck lies in 83m of water with a minimum depth of 64m on the port side hull. It is intact and lying on it's starboard side and makes for an absolutely fantastic dive in the Red Sea waters. We had a temperature of 25 degrees and 12 metre visibility when we dived it 4 days ago.
Look out in the various UK dive magazines for the news article, with a full article including pics appearing in Sport Diver in the next couple of months hopefully.
Cheers!

when you say new wreck found . can you tell us when it was found and first dived , thank you ,


looks like you have a place to do mod2/3 now a lads

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by warmwaterdiver

are you sure Peter Collings didn't find it first?

Steal my line, why don't you?


Congratulations on the discovery, look forward to reading about it soon.

Hxxx

[paulvinten]

Hi guys,
Without starting a huge arguement here, to the best of my knowledge, it has not been found, moved, converted, or otherwise interfered with by Pete Collings (it wasn't sticking out the water for a start!).
He does mention it in one of his books I think but as a possible contender for the channel wreck over near SHag Rock on the Sinai side.

We had information sourced from various places and a rough area to search, which we then further narrowed down by talking to local boat crews & bedouin fishermen. So with a search area just a few km square and a totally flat, featureless sandy bottom showing between 79 & 83m on the echo sounder, it was just when, not if we were going to find it.

We found it on sunday (19th Aug) and then went back & dived it on the Monday (20th Aug). We're returning to it on tuesday (28th) to get some pics & have a good explore.

Anybody want to come out & dive it in the future then feel free to get in touch with me.
Cheers!

[Steve Sub]

Originally Posted by paulvinten

Hi guys,
Without starting a huge arguement here, to the best of my knowledge, it has not been found, moved, converted, or otherwise interfered with by Pete Collings (it wasn't sticking out the water for a start!).

PMSL

Congrats on the discovery. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

ATB
Steve

[gobfish1]

Originally Posted by paulvinten

Hi guys,
Without starting a huge arguement here, to the best of my knowledge, it has not been found, moved, converted, or otherwise interfered with by Pete Collings (it wasn't sticking out the water for a start!).
He does mention it in one of his books I think but as a possible contender for the channel wreck over near SHag Rock on the Sinai side.

We had information sourced from various places and a rough area to search, which we then further narrowed down by talking to local boat crews & bedouin fishermen. So with a search area just a few km square and a totally flat, featureless sandy bottom showing between 79 & 83m on the echo sounder, it was just when, not if we were going to find it.

We found it on sunday (19th Aug) and then went back & dived it on the Monday (20th Aug). We're returning to it on tuesday (28th) to get some pics & have a good explore.

Anybody want to come out & dive it in the future then feel free to get in touch with me.
Cheers!

Congrats
Looking forward to seeing the pics.

can you say if your the first to dive this wreck , or do you think its seen other divers .