While scouring the deep of the Red Sea in 1955, Jacques Cousteau, a famous explorer, discovered the popular Thistlegorm, a British merchant vehicle submerged off the Southern tip of the Sinai. The shipwreck’s status as a remarkable dive site was sparked by the broad evidence and foreign media coverage of Cousteau’s revelation, which in turn sparked significant public attention in sea exploration. The Red Sea of Egypt is home to thousands of visitors annually, according to estimates of the American ship Thistlegorm, which was sunk by Luftwaffe troops in World War Two in 1941. The wreck has grown in popularity as jumping has grown in popularity among global divers, and PADI recently gave it the title of# 2 Best Shipwreck dive this year.
Simon Brown’s Thistlegorm photogrammetric unit
Throughout history, boats have been anthropomorphized and evolved alongside human, often taking on a life of their own, even in death, a boat’s fate is as remarkable as that of its flesh and bone team. Akin to its makers, a ship’s death may be followed by its ascension via adventurers, artists, musicians, story teller, fishermen, sea scientists, and museums. In short, a ship’s lifestyle does not stop just because it slips beneath the seas, rather, a tragedy metamorphosizes into a significant time capsule and an invaluable addition to humanity’s shared maritime ethnic heritage. These historic shipwrecks can provide information benefitting academic research, stories, myths, and media which delight the public, sights of attraction for tourism and sports divers, and avenues of commerce, revenue, and employment which stimulate the local economy.
Protection of Historical Shipwrecks
Prior to the advent of recreational SCUBA diving, wrecks remained largely inaccessible to people and preserved by the anoxic underwater environment, however, with the popularity of recreational diving, shipwrecks have become SCUBA tourism destinations. Deep water wrecks are a target for looters and salvers, and they are in danger of decomposition and destruction, whereas recreational SCUBA divers are largely unreachable from deep sea wrecks.
Historic shipwrecks ( <, 100 years old ) are acknowledged as” an integral part of the cultural heritage of humanity and a particularly important element in the history of peoples, nations, and their relations with one another regarding their common heritage” by UNESCO’s 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH). As protection is afforded to shipwrecks older than 100 years, WWII ships, such as Thistlegorm, are excluded from protective legislative, leaving them in a purgatorial status of increased degradation.
World-famous historical Wreck Dives
In developing nations, there are many diving destinations that provide visitors with pleasant and affordable vacations. For example, several premiere wreck dives, such as Thistlegorm ( Egypt ), Basuanga Bay ( Philippines ), and Liberty ( Indonesia ) are historic sites which attract many visitors a year and stimulate the local economy. The local community benefits from the positive tourism boom, as well as the local population’s employment opportunities. Dive tourism creates a need for hotels, marinas, boats, dive centers, restaurants, retail and so forth. The Blue Economy has grown over the past 50 years and attracted high-quality visitors from developing nations.
However, many of these historic shipwreck sites, such as the Thistlegorm in Egypt, are at-risk heritage sites and face difficulties with archaeological efforts to excavate, document, and manage the site. Effective heritage management can be hampered by domestic political issues, insufficient resources, limited funding, and a shortage of local specialists, mismanagement, or lack thereof, can lead to a lack of oversight, loss of archaeological integrity, unsustainable number of visitors, and little public outreach—all of which can be harmful to a site’s preservation and diminish cultural appreciation. Without effective management, these sites quickly deteriorate and run the risk of irreparably harming or losing them.
History of the Thistlegorm
While the Thistlegorm site has become a flagship of Scuba and Egyptian tourism, the wreck is, more importantly, a grave and a reminder of the sacrifices made during WWII’s North African theater. Lost during WWII, Thistlegorm was an armed commercial freighter ship carrying a cargo of vehicles, aircraft spares, and ammunition, and sunk by a Nazi Luftwaffe air raid in 1941. The 131m Thistlegorm, which operated with a crew of 42, had machine guns, a 4in high angle anti-aircraft gun, and a 12pdr low angle gun for surface targets.
Thistlegorm faces unavoidable threats such as weather and currents, however, our human impact on the site is manageable. Similar to the recent Titanic scans, ongoing Maritime Archaeological Projects like the Wrecks at Risk and Project Thistlegorm are working to document the site and have created a photogrammetric model of the wreck. Additionally, Simon Brown has created a copy of the wreck. Although there are future efforts to improve the mooring system and make the site a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site, the shipwreck is open year-round to numerous divers and is a popular dive destination for those from the Sinai and Hurghada.
If you can visit Egypt…and want to dive Thistlegorm…
book a live-aboard safari to Sharm el Sheikh or Hurghada for sure. Egypt consistently ranks among PADI’s top diving destinations for both beauty and affordability. The Red Sea is enhanced by historical shipwrecks like Thistlegorm and Carnatic, which are characterized by their vibrant aquarium-like reefs filled with sea goldies. Visitors to the Red Sea have the opportunity to learn about the rich history of Indo-European trade and military history while having an immersive and interactive encounter with marine biodiversity. You’ll leave with travel photos that will last a lifetime when you take a trip to the underwater museum of Thistlegorm, an experience unlike any other you’ve ever had. If you would like to know more about the Thistlegorm, please check out the book: Diving the Thistlegorm: The Ultimate Guide to a World War II Shipwreck.
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