SS Turkia

The SS Turkia's final voyage began in May 1941, when she left New York for Piraeus carrying steel cable, metal ingots, tires, vehicles, small arms and explosives, rounding Africa and sailing up the Red Sea. On 17 May 1941 a fire broke out in no. 3 hold, where explosives were stored; the crew abandoned the ship and, 10 minutes later, a large explosion sank her. Wartime records disagree on the cause: one states she was attacked and bombed by enemy aircraft, the other that she sank due to an internal explosion. Because the sinking appears to have been accidental, she does not appear as a casualty of war, merely as a wartime loss. The wreck was located in July 2007, following a tip from a fisherman.

The cargo is still on board: no. 4 hold is full of concreted mortar shells, still in their cases. The accommodation areas hold crockery and bottles, some with New York inscriptions, the ship's last port of call, and there are intact wine bottles on the upper deck. Hundreds of barracudas and trevallies live on the wreck, in schools so dense that the hull is sometimes barely visible. There are also schools of glassfish and hatchetfish, as well as scorpionfish, lionfish, thousands of sky-blue fusiliers and soft corals. On night dives, nudibranchs, crabs and shrimps appear.

The best time is usually from June to October; outside those months, the wind tends to be strong and the waves big in the Gulf of Suez. With a strong north wind, it is not possible to reach the Turkia from Hurghada.