Carnatic

Overview

The Carnatic is the grand old lady of the Red Sea wreck fleet — a Victorian steam-and-sail passenger ship that has rested on the Abu Nuhas reef since 1869, making her one of the oldest accessible wrecks in Egypt. More than a century and a half underwater has stripped her wooden planking and left an elegant open skeleton of iron ribs draped in coral, and many divers who work the Abu Nuhas wrecks name the Carnatic their favourite of the four.

The Dive

She lies on her port side on the northern slope of Abu Nuhas, her bow pointing into the reef, with the hull running from around 18m at the shallowest down to 27m at the stern on the sand. Because the timber decking has long since gone, the dive is unusually open and airy for a wreck: sunlight pours through the gaps between the surviving iron frames and cross-members, so you can drift the length of two former deck levels without the enclosed feel of a steel hull. The most photographed details are concentrated towards the stern — the row of square stern windows, the splendid rudder and propeller, the lifeboat davits still arching overhead, and old wine bottles and barrels from her cargo settled in the structure. Current along this exposed northern face can be brisk and is the main thing to plan around; the broken, see-through hull makes genuine penetration unnecessary and is best admired from outside or through its many openings.

Marine Life

The open ironwork is a perfect coral trellis, thickly grown with soft and hard corals and patrolled by the standard Abu Nuhas reef cast: groupers holding station in the shadows, lionfish hanging under the frames, glassfish shoaling in the more sheltered pockets, and anthias clouding the coral-covered uppers. Moray eels and scorpionfish work the structure, and out over the nearby reef you'll see the usual butterflyfish, wrasse and the odd passing pelagic.

History

The SS Carnatic was a 90m iron-framed, planked steamer of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), built in 1862–63 and rigged for both steam and sail. On 12 September 1869, en route from Suez to Bombay with passengers, mail, cotton, copper sheeting, wine and a reported consignment of gold, she ran onto Abu Nuhas reef in calm conditions. The captain, believing her secure, kept everyone aboard overnight rather than evacuating to the nearby island — a fateful decision. Some thirty-odd hours after grounding the hull broke in two and sank quickly, and 27 of the roughly 230 people aboard were lost. Salvage divers recovered much of the gold soon afterwards, and the wreck faded into legend before becoming one of the Red Sea's best-loved dives.

Good to Know

Conditions mirror the rest of Abu Nuhas: visibility is generally excellent at 25–35m, water is comfortable most of the year, and the open Shadwan Channel position means surface chop and current can be significant. The wreck is reached on a long day boat from Hurghada (about 2.5 hours) or as a stop on a northern liveaboard. The depth and current put it just beyond a true beginner site — solid buoyancy and ideally an Advanced Open Water certification make for a relaxed dive, though the lack of overhead environment makes it one of the friendlier deeper wrecks in the region.