SS Thistlegorm was a British cargo steamship that was build in the 1940 and sunk by German aircraft bombers in the Red Sea in 1941.
The ship rests underwater in the Ras Muhammad National Park at the southern extreme of the Sinai Peninsula, over looking the Gulf of Suez on the west and Gulf of Aqaba to the east.
The ship contained trucks, armored vehicles, motorcycles, guns, ammunition, radio equipment, boots, aircraft parts, railway wagons and two steam locomotives.
German aircrafts dropped two 2.5 ton high explosive bombs on Thistlegorm, both of which struck hold 4 near the stern of the ship in October, 1941. The bomb and the explosion of some of the ammunition stored in hold 4 led to the sinking of Thistlegorm with the loss of four sailors and five defensively equipped merchant ship (DEMS) gunners.
In the early 1950’s, Jacques Cousteau discovered the shipwreck by using information from local fisherman.
In the 1960’s, recreational diving began on the shipwreck. Today the SS Thistlegorm shipwreck hosts about 100 scuba divers per day.
More images from Egypt can be found here.
Wow. Foreboding.
Exploring shipwrecks are not really my thing from a historical perspective. However, I’m most interested the marine life that has reclaimed the environment underwater.
I also love the way sea animals reuse our detritus. Octopus are particularly adept at that.
Reblogged this on Bloganuary and commented:
Images from a sunken cargo ship during wartime.