Ship wrecked on popular diving reef

The 260m-long, Hong Kong-flagged CSCL Hamburg hit the reef, between the Sinai coast and Tiran Island, on the morning of New Year’s Eve, while en route to Singapore.

Diving operators and others are relieved that, so far, there appear to have been no leakages from the hull.

Damage is reportedly limited to the bow area, but could be severe as the ship ran on to the reef at a speed of about 20 knots. There were no injuries to crew or loss of cargo.

Four salvage companies are reported to be planning to retrieve the 50,500-tonne ship. The first step will be to removal its fuel and shift a number of forward-stowed containers aft.

The extent of damage to corals has yet to be assessed, and the diving community waits to learn what impact the grounding will have on diving in the area, in terms both of any salvage operation and of damage done to the reef.

John Kean, a Sharm El Sheikh-based PADI and TDI diving instructor and author of the book SS Thistlegorm, saw events unfold from a dive boat some way off, before moving in for a closer look.

“The ship passed the first reef, Jackson, at 10am and instead of continuing past Gordon Reef, the last of the four reefs in the Tiran Straits, it went between the middle two reefs, Woodhouse and Thomas,” he told Divernet.

“The gap here is less than 80m. The ship, with a beam of 32.3m, struck Woodhouse Reef just 50m from its end but went hard on to the top by a distance of around 25m.”

After the grounding, Kean and his companions overheard VHF radio communications between the ship’s 36-year-old captain and officers aboard two Egyptian Navy patrol boats sent to assess the damage.

The captain said that no fuel or oil leakages appeared to have occurred, and that pumps were at work to deal with water ingress which was limited to the bow area, due to the ship’s watertight compartments.

Kean later learned that, according to early reports, the ship deviated when its third officer, temporarily in charge of the bridge, turned to port to avoid a small craft.

It was thought that the officer either over-steered the vessel or underestimated its ability to turn back on to a safe course.

The Straits of Tiran are popular with scuba divers coming out of Sharm El Sheikh, for the scenic drift diving that can be had in the vicinities of Woodhouse, Jackson, Gordon and Thomas Reefs.

The grounding of the CSCL Hamburg comes soon after the loss of two diving vessels in the area.

An Egyptian liveaboard, Coral Princess, sank in open water near Jackson Reef in late November, with the loss of two diving guests from Spain.

This was followed in mid-December with the loss of Emperor Fraser, one of the Emperor Divers fleet, on Dunraven Reef, near Sharm El Sheikh.

The CSCL Hamburg is a nine-year-old vessel. Research by Kean has established that the grounding is its second major incident within two years.

“On the fifth of March 2008 the ship struck the Chinese ship Lian Hua Feng in the South China Seas, sending four of its containers crashing down on to its bow and damaging the anchors,” he said.

“Navigational error was blamed as a result of VHF radio use to ascertain the intentions of the other ship.”

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