Carnatic

A Zodiac drops you over the mooring and you descend to the stern at 25-27m, where the deepest part of the hull sits on sand. The propeller is the first feature most plans take in: three long narrow blades unmistakably nineteenth-century, with the rudder intact behind it. Forward of the stern the hull rolls onto its port side, and the midship opens into a collapsed engine room with boilers and machinery exposed at the deepest point of the swim. Beyond midship the spine breaks into ribs. With the wooden decking gone, the iron frames stand bare, and the route to the bow becomes a swim through the structure rather than past it. Two penetration levels exist at the stern for divers with the right training, but most of the dive is open swim-through with constant exits to blue water. The bow at 16-18m is where most dives end. Glassfish concentrate inside the bow holds in clouds thick enough to part around a diver and reform behind. A safety stop on the reef wall closes the dive at 5m.

She struck the reef in the early hours of 13 September 1869 and foundered the following day. The Suez Canal opened two months later. The Carnatic is a relic of the overland-crossing era, when P&O steamships shuttled specie and Royal Mail between Suez and Bombay, and no other diveable wreck in the Red Sea predates that watershed. Age has done unusual things to the structure: most wrecks deteriorate into rubble or collapse inward, but the Carnatic's iron-framed, wooden-planked composite construction has weathered into an open lattice — wood gone, ribs standing — so the hull reads less like a sunken ship and more like the skeletal remains of one. One hundred and fifty-seven years of coral colonisation now drape the iron: stony coral encrusts the bowsprit, leather coral covers the ribs, and a distinctive umbrella-shaped Acropora crown marks the centre section.

The 1869 loss is the wreck's defining backstory. The Carnatic left Suez on the morning of 12 September and struck the reef at about 1.20 a.m. on the 13th, three to four miles off Shadwan Island12. She was making no water at first, and Captain P. B. Jones judged her safe, refusing passengers' requests to abandon while the crew tried to haul her off and the P&O liner Sumatra was expected. Water began entering forward later that day, and by about 2 a.m. on the 14th it had reached the boilers and killed the engines. As the boats were finally loaded that morning she slipped down stern-first and broke apart, her bow left above the surface; thirty lives were lost, the number recorded in P&O's official casualty return3. The Board of Inquiry called Jones "a skilful and experienced officer" but found that every condition of ship, weather and light had favoured a safe passage and "there was needed only proper care; this was not done, and hence the disaster." His certificate was suspended for nine months, and by most accounts he never returned to sea. Souvenir hunters worked the wreck heavily after its 1984 rediscovery, and Egyptian law now treats anything inside it as protected archaeological material4.

The interior shots are why repeat photographers come back. Shooting from inside the wreck looking out keeps the iron as foreground and the surface as light source — every angle through a different rib gap or hatch produces a different frame. The glassfish schools concentrate inside the bow holds, and early morning is the prize: low-angle sunrise rays filter through portholes and rib gaps and ignite the schools in silver. The umbrella Acropora in the centre section gives a wide-angle anchor on the swim forward. Outside the hull, the bow with its copper bowsprit ring and stony coral encrustation works best with diver-as-scale framing. Bottom time at 20-25m allows one good photographic pass per dive — choose interior or exterior in the briefing.

Most of the wreck sits between 20 and 27m, so nitrox is recommended for any thorough exploration, particularly if you are pairing the Carnatic with Giannis D on the same Abu Nuhas day. The open structure removes the claustrophobia of enclosed wreck penetration: you can exit through any gap in the ribs and natural light reaches every corner. Corroded iron and broken bottle glass are the primary hazards — hover rather than settle, stay off the structure, and trim and buoyancy matter throughout. Currents are mild on the inner side where the wreck lies, sometimes stronger at the reef points, and strong winds on the exposed outer reef can suspend Zodiac drops entirely. Liveaboard itineraries get the early-morning slot; day boats arrive later. Take the dawn dive if you can.