SCUBA Diving Inside the Wreck of the MV Salem Express - The Titanic of the Red Sea

The MV Salem Express was a roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry which operated for 25 years.

The ship was originally named Fred Scamaroni and was launched in 1964 and delivered in 1965 to CGT, France.
From 1969 to 1982 she was known as MV Nuits Saint Georges operating the Dunkirk - Ramsgate route. Again sold to new owners in 1982, she was renamed yet again to MV Lord Sinai, running the route between Aquaba and Suez.

In 1988 she was sold for a final time to the Samatour Shipping Company in Egypt, and renamed the Salem Express; its primary scheduled route was between Suez and Jeddah.
On its final voyage, the Salem Express sailed a 450-mile journey from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Safaga, Egypt, which took around 36 hours; they intended to unload 350 passengers, before continuing then sailing north to Suez. The night of the sinking was stormy.
The majority of passengers were Egyptian. Most were poorly-paid labourers travelling home by boat for the holidays; around 150 were returning from pilgrimage to Mecca.
Cause of the Disaster

The ship ran aground on a coral reef between 6-10 miles off shore, after deviating from its planned route. The reef ripped a hole in the forward starboard bow, and knocked open the ship's bow door - allowing seawater into the car deck. Ro-Ro ferries are extremely vulnerable once the car-deck is breached.

Initial reports claimed the ship had drifted off course in the high winds.
However, an alternative belief is that the ship was deliberately taken on a different route by the captain in an attempt at a short-cut, to reduce the travel time by several hours.
Captain Hassan Moro had commanded the ship since 1988, was familiar with the area and was reportedly known for regularly taking the shortcut between the Hyndman Reef and the coastline from the south, instead of the safer route around the Panorama Reef from the north.
The ship’s departure had been delayed due to mechanical faults in Saudi Arabia by two days. Giving rise to reports from several crew members saying that the captain was in a hurry, in hope of getting a full overnight stop to rest at Safaga before continuing to Suez.
Sinking

The ship was due to make port at 2330. The crew were supposedly relaxed; Captain Hassan Khalil Moro was resting in his cabin, as usual, with the First Officer on the bridge.

At 2311, a large crash rocked the ship as it ran aground. Very soon after, it began listing to starboard; the lights went out and a distress signal was sent. The ship is reported to have rolled over in close to 11 minutes, trapping hundreds below deck, and sank entirely a few minutes later.

The speed of the capsize and sinking created a mass panic. Hanan Salah, a nurse on the ferry, said there was no time to help people into lifeboats; other survivors complained they had difficulty manning the lifeboats and that some crewmembers had pushed them aside to take the boats themselves. A few crew members did attempt to help passengers; Shaaban abu Siriya, who left his cabin because he heard crew members shouting, said “It just sunk all at once, and I barely had time to get out”.

The extreme weather made survival in the water more difficult. Rescue attempts on the night were not attempted due to the storm.

One survivor found a life-raft in the stormy water after four hours clinging to a wooden door; it was filled with water and three bodies. Along with another man, she rescued 15 people onto the raft – only for it to capsize in the high waves at 0700.
Ismail Abdel Hassan, an amateur long-distance swimmer, was stood on the ship’s deck as it went down. He followed the lights of the port and swam to shore, surviving 18 hours in the water. He attempted to lead two other men to safety, who held onto his clothes, but each died of exhaustion on the way.
Dispute Over the Final Death Toll

The number of passengers and drowned are both disputed.
It was initially announced early Sunday evening that 202 people had been rescued. Later, Egyptian television said that the prime minister had tallied 178 rescued. There was also uncertainty over the number of people aboard the ferry. The shipping company manifest reportedly listed 658 people aboard, including the 71-member crew, while the port security department in Safaga listed the total at only 589.
However, other sources claim either the death toll, or the true total of bodies recovered was 850, and that the boat had been overloaded with passengers both on deck and stood in the car deck.
Diving the Wreck

The wreck lies off Port Safaga, Hyndman reef, at a depth of 32m.
Diving the site is controversial, due to the heavy loss of life, the presence of bodies on the wreck, how recent the wreck was and its impact on nearby communities. Although many trips to the wreck are available, some local guides are uncomfortable with or forbid entry to the wreck, and divers often report feeling sombre or unsettled by the experience. I certainly did.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Salem_Express

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