The Strait of Gubal

The Strait of Gubal is where the Gulf of Suez narrows into the Red Sea proper, and every ship going to or from the Suez Canal has to thread it. It is shallow, it is full of reefs that break just under the surface, and for a hundred and fifty years it has been collecting wrecks.

Two things make it the best wreck-diving ground in the world. The first is traffic: the overland route to India ran through Suez from the 1840s, the canal opened in 1869, and the Second World War turned the strait into a supply artery for the Eighth Army. The second is depth — the ships that came to grief here mostly hit reefs rather than sank in open water, so they lie in 15 to 30 m of warm, clear, coral-growing water instead of somewhere unreachable.

Sha'ab Abu Nuhas alone has taken at least seven ships. Shag Rock took the Kingston. Sha'ab Ali took the Thistlegorm, though she was bombed rather than wrecked. The Rosalie Moller was bombed two nights later at the next anchorage north. The Ulysses went onto Gubal Seghir in 1887 and is still there.

Sites here: Thistlegorm, Rosalie Moller, Abu Nuhas and its wrecks (Carnatic, Giannis D, the tile wreck), Kingston at Shag Rock, the Barge and Ulysses at Bluff Point, Shaab el Erg, Beacon Rock, Gobal Island, Small Gabal Island, Ras Abu Soma.