SS THISTLEGORM - Sha’b Ali

History

The SS Thistlegorm was built in 1940 by Joseph Thomson and Sons  in Sunderland. She was one of a number of similar ships, name prefixed with „thistle“ and owned by Albyn Line. It was 415 feet long with a beam of 58 feet. It was 4898 tons and poweredalong by triple expansion steam engines of 365 marine horsepower.
In 1941 it was a bleak year for wartime in Britain. The Thistlegorm was relatively new and had been cramped to the gunwales, in Glasgow, with vital war supplies, trucks, planes, guns, trains, motorbikes, munitions, radios and rupper boots.
She joined a convoy. On October 6 th, 1941, she was waiting at anchorage in the strait of Gubal, in sight of Mount Sinai.
She was waiting for orders to move up through the Suez Canal.
At 01:30 hours the German warplanes warplanes from Crete found her too.
She was hit. Two bombs struck her aft deck and exploded in the munitionspacked aft hold. The result was devastating.
Nine of the forty-nine man crew were killed including four of her nine gunners, who were not even able to get off a single returning shot from the anti aircraft gun at her stern.
Most of the crew jumped into the sea. A wounded gunner was tapped on the blazing deck. Angus Avleay got to him by running barefoot across the burning deck and carried him to the lifeboat.
For this he was awarded the George Medal. The Thistlegorm settled on the sea bed. For a time the British ships dipped their ensigns in respect as they passed her resting place. Then she lay forgotten.

The Wreck

As far as we we know the wreck was first dived by Cousteau in the 1950“s and was then forgotten again. Nikolaus Cz. found the wreck on a Safari in 1987 with Captain Mohammed Abdala and both keep in secret.
Rudi Kneip make the Thistlegorm popular after his Safari with his  Ship „Lady Somaya“.
Since then the wreck has been relocated and dived, 1992. The aft deck is shattered where the bombs had struck. The brengun carrier is upturned and cases of shells are exposed in boxes, 4 inch shells.
100 foot expanse of the aft deck is unrecognisable as a ship. The Vessel is more or less on an even kee, big to port at the stern to cause the long barrelled anti aircraft gun to swing round on its mountings to point at the sand. A second shorter barrelled gun of larger calibre was less affected, (3 ½ inch gun). Both are covered in coral, with breeches closed.
At the bow her port anchor is weighed and her forecastle is frozen in time. The rope lies neatly coiled and the winches stand ready, now all covered in marine life.
Her fordecks carry railway wagons and steam engine tenders. The buffers decorated with marine tinsel. Beside them two minesweeping drones.
Through the first hold on the first level between the decks there are rows of army trucks. There tyres gleaming. The trucks are loaded with endless numbers of rubber boots. Between them are motorbikes. Between these are rifles, 303“s clamped in clusters. Sprinkled everywhere are bullets for the guns.
The stern towards the galley has six wheeler trucks and Tillies, pickups based on the 1938 Bedford, 15 cwt“s and made by Thomas Tilling & Co, a vehicle used by the army before the development of the jeep.
Some of the trucks are up to there axles in sand. The windshields still intact, sported single and ineffectual windscreen wipers.
There is a locomotive that free wheeled to a hault out on the sea bed some 50 m away from the wreck. A  0-6-0, which had falled from the sloping deck and trundled away.
A lot of  the badges have been stripped from the tanks of the BSA motor bikes and the pouch tool kits have been taken from under their saddles.
In the forward holds aircraft wings are stacked between the trucks. Valve radio’s are stacked in piles, close to heaps of bell-housings for the lorry clutches. There are also large wooden boxes with large phials of dark liquid.
On the decks above, railway wagons and tankers have imploded under the pressure of the sea water. In the holds are more motorbikes, rifles and boots.

Thistlegorm - Hintergründe

Der englische Frachter  >>Thistlegorm<< wurde am 06.10.1941 von deutschen Jagdbombern versenkt, während er hier vor Anker lag.
Das Schiff war ende 1940 auf der Werft von Joseph Thompson and Sons in Sunderland vom Stapel gelaufen und sollte Nachschub für die britischen Truppen in den nahen Osten bringen.
Die Thistlegorm war rund um Afrika gefahren und nach einem kurzen Aufenthalt im Hafen von Aden ins Rote Meer ein- und ihrem Schicksal entgegengelaufen. Dem Bombenangriff fielen 9 Mann der 49-köpfigen Besatzung zum Opfer. Das Schiff sank, nachdem das Heck durch die dort verstaute Munition zerfetzt wurde.
Die Thistlegorm hatte auf ihrem Hauptdeck 4 Eisenbahnwagons, 2 Lokomotiven und zwei große Torpedos geladen. Die drei großen Laderäume enthielten Material, das auch heute noch intakt ist und trotz Ablagerung und Korrosion identifiziert werden kann. Was der Zahn der Zeit bisher nicht zerstört hat, wird leider von einigen Tauchern um so nachhaltiger vernichtet oder entwendet.
Heute liegt das beeindruckende  9000 Tonnen verdrängende Schiff aufrecht auf dem ca. 30 m tiefen Sandgrund. Die Aufbauten des Wracks reichen bis auf ca. 16 m hinauf und erleichtern dem Taucher den Aufstieg.
Das Wasser in diesem Gebiet ist häufig sehr eingetrübt, auch herrscht meist eine starke Strömung von Norden her.
An diesem Wrack sollten nur sehr erfahrene Taucher tauchen, da mit sehr starker Strömung zu rechnen ist und das Wrack für Sporttaucher ziemlich tief liegt.

The Thistlegorm

The story of the "Thistlegorm" starts, in 1940, at the yards of J.L. Thompson and Sons in Sunderland. She was 415 feet long, a beam of 58 feet , and a net tonnage of 4898 tons.
She was powered by triple-expansion steam engines that could generate 365 nominal horsepower.  The British Government had helped fund the construction of the Thistlegorm; therefore, upon her completion, the government requisitioned her for the war effort.
Her final journey started in Glasgow, bound for Egypt, in September 1941. She was delivering desperately needed war supplies for the British 8th Army in North Africa. She was laden with all kinds of military equipment: including Bedford gun carriers, vehicle spares, aircraft and aircraft parts, motorbikes, gun carriers, radios, guns, railway stock, rubber boots, and an abundance of ammunition. At this crucial time of the war, Germans and Italians virtually controlled the seas and skies of the Mediterranean. Consequently, it was far too dangerous for Allied merchant ships to take the shortest, fastest route to Egypt. So the Thistlegorm had to make a 12,000 mile diversion around South Africa to Suez, from where she would go up the Suez Canal to reach Alexandria.
The voyage, to what would become her final resting place, was a long one. However, the ship made excellent time and stopped off at Capetown in South Africa where she picked up her escort, the cruiser H.M. S. Carlisle, for the remainder of the voyage. By the 4th of October, they were in the Red Sea and only a day out from Suez, and on the 5th, they entered the calm zone alongside Sha’ab Ali to wait for orders to move up the canal.

In the early morning hours of October 6, the Thistlegorm was discovered by a long-range German bomber based in Crete. A pair of German Heinkel bombers were deployed from Crete and headed south-east towards Egypt. As the bombers approached the Shab’ab Ali area, they saw that there were several ships in the anchorages and so they quickly armed their bombs. Because they were low on fuel, they had to choose the first target they came across. Unfortunately, that target was the Thistlegorm. Two of the four bombs released landed close together and penetrated the aft of the ship, one directly on the cover of the ship’s fourth hold--which was where the ammunition had been stowed. The resultant explosion ripped way the stern section, and set the ship ablaze. The fire reached the lower holds and the ammunition stored there exploded. The subsequent explosion blew the entire stern midsection of the ship apart and her bow and stern pointed skywards before she sank to her underwater grave. Nine of the crew members met their fates as well that early October morning. The surviving crew members were picked up and transported to Port Tewfick, just outside the Suez Canal.
For many years after the sinking of the Thistlegorm, Britisih navy vessels passing that spot would lower their flags in respect to those that has lost their lives. The Thistlegorm laid undisturbed until the early fifties when a young explorer name Jacques Cousteau found her. He raised several items from the wreck including a motorbike, the Captain’s safe and the ship’s bell. He published a book, and in doing so, published the wrong coordinates for her position. Again time passed the wreck by until early 1990’s, when a group of divers found themselves on the bridge of the Thistlegorm. Once word got around as to the magnificence of this divesite, it seemed as though the whole world was flocking this "World War II museum".
Diver overload along with looting and vandalism have taken their toll on the Thistlegorm, and in all likelihood, the Egyptian authorities may soon ban diving on her altogether in order to protect the well-being of this "World War II time capsule". Yet, it is still considered a vital hub of wreck-diving in the Red Sea, and to the diver is conceived as one of the most sought after wreck-dives in the world. Truly, the Thistlegorm must be one of the best dive sites ever known.