Hamada (wreck)

The ship was built in Aberdeen by the John Lewis & Sons shipyard and launched on 12 June 1965 under the name Avocet, for the General Steam Navigation Company. She was a 65.10 m coastal freighter with two holds. Later, as the Hamada, a Cypriot freighter, she was carrying polyethylene balls from Jeddah to Suez when she sank in 1993, under mysterious circumstances, and ran aground on the Abu Ghusun reef. Part of that cargo of plastic granules still turns up on the beach in front of the wreck.

After sinking, the freighter broke into two parts and now lies on her starboard side, with the bow pointing south. The masts and holds are embedded in the reef, and at low tide parts of the ship are visible at the surface.

Although relatively recent, the hull has already been colonized by many species of soft and hard corals. Schools of glassfish and lionfish move in and around the wreck, which is also home to a moray. On the reef next to the stern, healthy hard corals host lionfish, glassfish, octopus and morays. Apart from the wreck, the Abu Ghusun reef has very well-preserved corals and an area of seagrass.