MS Aboudy & S.S. Scalaria

MS Aboudy
The wreck lies on its port side along a north-south axis, with the bow and keel pointing seaward. The bridge and superstructure have collapsed aft. The cargo holds run the entire length of the ship and still contain parts of the original cargo. Hundreds of bottles of cough syrup lie scattered in the sand. Two very photogenic crane platforms flank the cargo holds. The flagmasts with their main searchlights are still in their original positions. At a depth of 7 meters, you can still find the propeller and the rudder.

Due to the shallow depth, the Aboudi can be thoroughly explored and dived. It is heavily overgrown with sponges and corals and provides a light-filled home for marine life. You’ll encounter schools of fusiliers and barracudas, as well as torpedo rays and crocodile fish. Unfortunately, in rough seas, visibility decreases rapidly due to stirred-up sand.

S.S. Scalaria
The S.S. Scalaria was a 5.83 BRT tanker built in 1921 by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Newcastle, UK. The tanker, 123 meters long, 16.2 meters wide, and with a draft of 9.4 meters, was powered by a 3-cylinder steam engine and reached a top speed of 11 knots. During World War II, the Scalaria was armed and served as a floating oil storage facility off Ras Gharib. On October 19, 1942, she was attacked by a Heinkel 111 and sunk in a sea of flames while carrying approximately 7,000 metric tons of crude oil.

Today, divers can explore the stern and bow, which lie just a few meters below the surface and are separated from the rest of the ship. Toward the stern, the three well-preserved boilers of the steam engines emerge from a tangle of ladders, remnants of the ship’s side, and pipes. The three-cylinder engine can still be found, easily recognizable by the handwheel for steam control.