RED SEA DIVER
SALEM EXPRESS
This Red Sea wreck can be a great dive – but that depends on how you feel about diving on a tomb, says PAUL GRAHAM. Photos
by ABDO ELHABASHY
THE RED SEA’S abundance of marine life attracts divers from all over the world, but it is the shipwrecks that are Egypt’s hidden treasures.
One such is the former passenger ferry Salem Express, which rests 32m down on the Hyndman reef just off the coast near Port Safaga, south Hurghada.
The 100m vessel was never a stranger to mishaps but its career ended in disaster. Built in 1964, it had suffered engine fires and collisions and ran aground in 1980.
But 30 years ago, shortly after midnight on 15 December, 1991, the ferry hit the reef and sank to its final resting place.
She had been returning from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, packed with vehicles and passengers returning from their pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, when stormy weather caused the captain to deviate from his planned route.
The reef ripped a hole in the starboard bow and knocked open the bow door, allowing seawater to engulf the car-deck.
There was no chance of surviving the flood and the ship sank in only 20 minutes. The Salem Express now lies on its starboard side on the seabed.