SS Thistlegorm (1941): Shipwreck Map, Location & Facts

Name	SS Thistlegorm	Wikidata label
Year lost	1941	Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier
Era	Second World War	derived from year
Ship type	cargo ship, recreational dive site	Wikidata P31 instance of
Cause of loss	War action	Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence
Nationality / flag	United Kingdom	Wikidata P8047 country of registry
Conflict	World War II	Wikidata P607 conflict
Sea / ocean	Gulf of Suez	Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon
Nearest coast	Egypt	Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 30 km from land
Position	27.8142, 33.9200	Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0)

About the wreck

SS Thistlegorm was a British cargo steamship that was built in Sunderland, North East England in 1940 and sunk by German bomber aircraft in the Red Sea in 1941. Her wreck near the Ras Muhammad National Park is now a well-known diving site.

Diving & visiting

In the early 1950s, Jacques Cousteau discovered her by using information from local fishermen. He raised several items from the wreck, including a motorcycle, the captain's safe, and the ship's bell. The February 1956 edition of National Geographic clearly shows the ship's bell in place and Cousteau's divers in the ship's lantern room. Cousteau documented diving on the wreck in part of his book The Living Sea.

Following Cousteau's visit, the site was forgotten about except by local fishermen. In the early 1990s, Sharm el-Sheikh began to develop as a diving resort. Recreational diving on Thistlegorm restarted following the visit of the dive boat Poolster, using information from another Israeli fishing boat captain.

The massive explosion that sank her had blown much of her midships superstructure away and makes the wreck very accessible to divers. The depth of around 30 m (100 feet) at its deepest is ideal for diving without the need for specialist equipment and training.

Location

Recorded position: 27.8142, 33.9200 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
Sea / ocean: Gulf of Suez
Nearest coast: Egypt

Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.

OpenStreetMap

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article SS Thistlegorm (revision 1352130702), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Discovery by Cousteau”, “Rediscovery and recreational dive site”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.

Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).