 THE THISTLEGORM
WAS BOMBED AND SUNK IN THE EARLY HOURS OF 6 OCTOBER 1941
Found in the '50s then forgotten again, the Thistlegorm first
re-appeared in Diver early in 1993, when John Bantin wrote about
it. "In late October 1992 Simshon, an Israeli skipper who did
diving as well as fishing charters, was told about a good site
for fishing by Bedouin fishermen," he told me. "He was the
person who rediscovered the Thistlegorm, and told all the other
Israeli skippers. The foreign boat-operators wanted to keep the
position secret from the Egyptians, for just an elite few!". Bantin's article referred to "a unique opportunity to dive a
wreck that has been virtually undisturbed for 50 years... this
has to be the best shipwreck in the world". He ended, however,
with an ominous comment about "the depressing noise of the wreck
being vandalized" by a group that arrived as his boat was
departing. On his return a few months later, he commented: "I
was shocked to witness the results of the diver activity which
had already taken place. The souvenir-hunters had already
started their vandalism".
Mark Hobday visited the wreck later that year. "It was my first
live aboard trip in coral waters. I had read John Bantin's
article and was astounded at how she was a real 'time capsule',
just as he described her. The Thistlegorm will remain the best
wreck dive ever, because it was so pristine and complete -
upright and full of an army's shopping list. What sticks is
being down first with no silt, floating into the hold with the
collection of Bedford trucks.
For More Details,
Go to Thistlegorm
Source : Divers
network magazine
The Dunraven is not marked on any of the Admiralty charts for
the area, so her
discovery
was never one of "let’s go and check this out!"
One published account of the
Dunraven states that, in 1977, a German Geologist came across
the wreck whilst undertaking survey work for an oil company
and, although he passed on what little information he had
collected to the owner of a local Diving facility, his
co-ordinates were so vague that the vessel remained unexplored
for at least another 2 years. Another account, however, states
that the Geologist in question was an Israeli - but that man
turned out to be a local diver who never found the wreck. Yet
another version suggests that this whole "geologist" story was
deliberately created to lessen the achievement of those who
claimed to have discovered the wreck.
For More Details,
Go
to
Dunraven
Source : Divers
network magazine
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