---
title: Salem Express
type: Wreck dive site
location: Safaga, Red Sea, Egypt
coordinates: 26.639389038085938, 34.06157302856445
max_depth_m: 30
published: 2026-06-23T20:47:30.312Z
updated: 2026-09-06T15:02:25.007Z
tags: Salem Express, Wreck, Red Sea, Dive site, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/diving/dive-sites/salem-express
---

# Salem Express

## Quick facts

- **Type:** Wreck
- **Location:** Safaga, Red Sea, Egypt
- **Coordinates:** 26.639389038085938, 34.06157302856445
- **Max depth:** 30 m
- **Depth notes:** 10-30m
- **Level:** Advanced
- **Rating:** 5.0 / 5

## Good to know

- Best for advanced divers
- Drift dive
- Great for macro photography

## Overview

The Salem Express was a passenger ferry, launched in France in 1964 as the Fred Scamaroni and renamed after the Samatour line bought her. On December 15, 1991 she struck Hyndeman reef, which opened her hull, and she went down fast. The official count was 960 pilgrims returning from Mecca; other accounts put the number aboard closer to 1,600. About 180 people survived. The wreck holds the remains of those who did not, and most operators dive it from the outside only.

## Location

On the south side of Shaab Shehr, about an hour and a half from Safaga.

## Conditions

Exposed, with the possibility of very strong current.

## Dive plan

She lies on her starboard side in 30 m of water. The descent usually starts at the stern, the deepest part, where both propellers and the rudders are intact.

Working forward along the bottom brings the lifeboats into view, still hanging from their davits, and then the funnels with the Samatour S on them.

## What to see

Marine life has been slow to take the wreck. Groupers, lionfish, crocodilefish and surgeonfish are present, and hard coral is only beginning to establish itself on the plating.

## Species recorded here (2)

- Common Lionfish (*Pterois miles*)
- Crocodilefish (*Papilloculiceps longiceps*)

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/diving/dive-sites/salem-express)*
*Updated: September 6, 2026*