Overview
The Thistlegorm was destroyed by her own cargo. A German bomber found her at anchor in Sha'ab Ali in October 1941, and the bombs set off the ammunition stowed in hold 4. The explosion tore the stern apart and threw the two locomotives she carried on deck clear of the ship, and they lie on the sand on either side of the hull. That is why the wreck reads so plainly on the bottom: the damage shows exactly what was in her.
Dive plan
She sits upright, bow intact and stern blown open, and most dives are planned around the holds rather than the outside of the hull. The cargo is the reason to go in: Bedford trucks with motorcycles still stacked in their beds, Lee Enfield rifles, ammunition, boots and aircraft wings, stowed as they were loaded for the North African campaign. The two locomotives lie on the sand off either side, thrown there by the explosion. The Rosalie Moller went down two days later a few miles away, and the two wrecks are often dived on the same trip.
What to see
After more than eighty years the structure carries heavy growth: soft corals on the railings and masts, glassfish filling the holds, and batfish and jacks holding station over the deck. Barracuda and large groupers work the outside of the hull.
Dive sites nearby
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