Salem Express
The Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah is located on the eastern shores of the Red Sea, at latitude 21° 28' north, and it was here, on December 16th 1991, that the Egyptian ferry “Salem Express” was loaded with vehicles and several hundred passengers. These were mostly pilgrims, who were in good heart and dressed in their finest robes – as is always the case when returning from the holy city of Mecca. Based in Safaga, the Salem Express provided a ferry service between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Her Captain was Hassan Moro, a very able and vastly experienced Master Mariner. Widely regarded as a fine seaman, Moro had previously taught at the Egyptian Naval Academy and had moved to Safaga to work for the Samatour Shipping Company. He was appointed Master of the Salem Express in 1988. This was a Captain who knew the route between Safaga and Jeddah well – but perhaps too well! Every time he approached Safaga, Captain Moro was in the habit of sailing between the Egyptian mainland and the treacherous Hyndman Reefs – which lie just to the south of the port. This maneuver saved a full two hours of sailing time.

On 16th December 1991, the Salem Express commenced her final journey. By nightfall, the weather had deteriorated, with winds gusting to gale force. Crossing the Red Sea, the captain deliberately hugged the coast as he made his way northwards - trying to provide his passengers with whatever protection was available from a “lee” shore. As the vessel approached the Hyndman Reefs it was close to midnight and impossible to distinguish reef from sea in such conditions. Moro was just slightly to the east of his normal route and that resulted in the Salem Express striking the most southerly reef with heavy glancing blow. The result was twofold. Firstly, the hull was holed on the forward starboard side. At the same time, the impact caused the visor on the bows to be jolted upwards from its closed position, allowing water into the car deck. Such a double blow was utterly catastrophic and, as vast quantities of water swept into the vessel from these two sources, everything happened too quickly. An immediate list to starboard caused by the ruptured hull was worsened by the water entering the car deck and the list increased at an alarming pace. With the storm continuing unabated, there was instant panic among the passengers as the vessel stalled and continued to lean over towards an unforgiving sea. Within 20 minutes of striking the reef, the Salem Express sank. She came to rest in 30m of water on her starboard side. A few much smaller vessels were safely moored on the lee side of the larger reefs nearby, but were unable to render assistance for fear of losing their own boats. One skipper later reported that he had watched the Salem Express approach and “one moment she was there and the next she was gone!”. Many lives were lost when the ship sank and others perished in the immediate aftermath. For some, however, the ordeal was not yet over – they were swimming for their lives. So swift had been the sinking that none of the lifeboats or life-rafts had been properly launched. These people were on their own, but at least the current was taking them towards shore. Remarkably, 180 people survived, with most of them eventually reaching the shore unaided.

Officially, the vessel was carrying 650 persons – 578 passengers and 72 crew. Although many people insist she was carrying up to twice as many passengers, further speculation serves no useful purpose. The official death toll was set at 470 and, in any event, it is highly unlikely that the port officials of Jeddah would have allowed a grossly overloaded boat to depart. Naturally, relatives began demanding answers and, initially at least, the crew were criticized when it became known that most of the lifeboats and life-rafts had gone down with the ship. In all fairness, however, there was too little time between impact and sinking to have achieved anything – especially as the ship had adopted a severe list almost immediately. Of course, the one man responsible for everything that happened on that dreadful night was Captain Hassan Moro – and he went down with his ship.

Diving the Salem Express
This is one of the largest wrecks in the Egyptian Red Sea – 100m x 18m. She lies perfectly on her starboard side at an almost uniform depth of 32m from bow to stern. The visor is still found in the raised position – just as it was so many times when loading vehicles. The large foredeck has few obstructions, except for a pair of windlasses for the large twin anchors – both of which remain fully retracted into their respective hawse-pipes. Above the bridge is an open space, occupied by the ship's large mast. The uppermost port side of the entire wreck is at a fairly uniform 10-12m throughout and a companionway runs along most of the ship's length from bridge to stern. Here are many doors that once gave access to the ship's interior, but all are sealed. Behind the bridge and above the accommodations, is a raised sun deck with lifeboat davits on both sides. All lifeboats on the port side are absent. Four lifeboats are sitting on the seabed. The ship's sides curve back slightly towards the square stern, making it quite easy to swim under the wreck and emerge on the other side right next to the two huge propellers and single rudder. Underneath, the main hull is virtually featureless, apart from the stabilizers towards the bows. At the stern, shoals of sweet-lips enjoy the shade and, elsewhere, angelfish, butterfly fish and goatfish are found everywhere with blue-spotted stingray close by on the sand. The wreck itself is already covered with a large number of hard corals and, being in a relatively sheltered location, will eventually become part of the Hyndman Reefs in its own right.

The very act of diving this particular wreck does stir controversy. There are those, who refuse to visit this vessel altogether and some, who even object to others who wish to see it themselves. Clearly they feel the Salem Express should be placed out of bounds altogether and every opinion is as valid as the next. It is not for the author to say who is right or wrong. Many of those divers who insist on "not" diving the Salem Express – and who feel that their views should be observed by other divers - are very happy to move on and dive wrecks such as the Carnatic, where 31 people died, or the Thistlegorm, where the death toll was nine! Surely our respect for those who died should be unswerving, whatever the size of the tragedy...


Tien Hsing
This is an excellent dive; the Tien Hsing is a small Japanese tug boat and it is covered with hard and soft corals. Inside, she is full of glassfish and a resident red mouth grouper also lives here. The wreck lies at approximately a 45 degree angle with the stern, sitting in the sand at the bottom of the reef and the bow rests shallow on the reef top. This is a wreck that is now totally “infested” with colorful reef life of all kinds.

Just behind the bow, you will find a break in the reef that leads to a fair sized cavern. It is nice to swim in, as the sun shines down, to admire the red rock morphology formed by the waves. However, there is not much life in here – it’s just something “different” to explore.
Being a reasonably sheltered site, it is possible to do a night dive here. Having explored it already during the day, it can be fascinating to come back and see how different the Tien Hsing looks at night. The first thing to notice is that all glassfish disappear from inside the wreck; it is still a mystery where they go! This leaves the inside of the wreck empty, but you can still come across a lost parrotfish, a snowflake moray eel, a beautiful Spanish dancer, some pipefish, a few lionfish and many feather stars. The cave is nice and atmospheric to pop into. This is an easy fun dive with lots of photo opportunities.


Panorama Reef
There is superb wall diving at Panorama, which is in fact one of the largest reefs in Safaga, featuring numerous grottos and overhangs, where gorgonians and soft corals thrive with the frequent nurturing currents. Due to the size of the barrier, there are at least three different dives to be done here: the south plateau and the east and west drop-offs. Barracudas, white tip reef sharks and occasionally even hammerheads and manta rays can be found. The south plateau is somewhat more protected by the current.


Abu Kafan
Abu Kafan is a 300-meter long and narrow reef offering a plateau at both north and south tips. We normally jump in the water on the north plateau and glide with the frequent strong current southwards along the impressive walls, covered with soft and black coral, giant fans and gorgonians.


Sataya (Dolphin Reef)
This horseshoe-shaped reef lies in open water to the north-east of Ras Banas. The eastern side of the reef has a steeply sloping wall profile, giving way to a sandy slope scattered with coral heads and pinnacles toward the reef’s southeast corner. The lower reaches of the reef are rather poorly covered, with the best coral growth occurring in the upper 10m. The southern pinnacles are especially rich, with a wide variety of coral types throughout. The varied hard coral composition of the heads and pinnacles acts as a base for some extremely nice soft coral growth, particularly Dendronephthia.

Fish life here is excellent. Schooling fish of all types are seen in large numbers, while reef-dwellers, such as angelfish and butterflies, provide flashes of color. Cuttlefish and shrimps put in an appearance for the invertebrates, and blue-spotted and black-spotted stingrays are common. Sharks of several types can also frequently be spotted here, and there are regular reports of dolphins along the reef or inside the lagoon, as they return here to sleep every night.

The good shelter provided by the reef makes this an excellent stop for liveaboards.


Shaab Maksur
The south plateau offers a superb diving site. Here you will find three coral pinnacles, which are overgrown with red soft corals; they contain several caves and crevices, where glassfish, groupers, morays and other creatures hide among the soft corals and gorgonians. Fish are also plentiful and large schools of carangids, surgeons and other small fish can be seen here. With some luck you can see sharks at the edge of the plateau.


Shaab Sharm
This large, kidney-shaped reef, said to be the top of a volcanic pinnacle, features a steep sloping wall on its east and south sides, with a considerable varied profile, especially on the south-eastern and southern stretches.

The reef crescent around the reef’s southern tip offers the best diving, where rich coral growth from the surface shallows down, with the most interesting profile and layout in the area. There are numerous undercut sections and reef shelves harboring dense soft coral growth and a good range of hard corals. There are also some good black coral bushes on the wall’s deeper sections. Fish life is excellent, with a vast array of huge groupers, schooling barracuda, massive congregations of snapper and unicorns and some very large giant, yellow-margin and yellow-mouth morays.

Currents here can be forceful, and less experienced divers should pay close attention to conditions.


Fury Shoal
Fury Shoal is a large system of reefs growing on top of a shallow shelf, 13km offshore to the north of Ras Banas; it offers a variety of excellent dives. Sataya is a great sheltered place for a night dive, but the highlight of Fury Shoal has to be Erg Abu Diab, also know as Erg Spice. Here the walls are sheer and a rich variety of hard and soft corals, sea fans and sponges grow on them. White tip and grey reef sharks are common year-round and in summer you do see hammerheads around here.