Salem Express

Good to know

Best season

Year-round; calmest seas spring and autumn.

Protected status

Not a designated marine protected area, but regarded as a maritime grave. Egyptian authorities and CDWS-affiliated operators discourage or forbid penetration; some operators do not sell the dive.

Fees

Covered by the standard Safaga day-boat environmental/port charge. Operators typically impose an experience gate: Extra Divers requires Advanced Open Water plus 25+ logged dives.

Wreck

Roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry, about 110 m long and 18 m in beam, licensed for 1,256 passengers with 428 berths, 145 vehicles and 71 crew. Struck Hyndman Reef and sank around 23:13 on 14 December 1991 while returning pilgrims and workers from Jeddah to Safaga. FATALITIES: the official Egyptian death toll is 470; the Lloyd's Maritime Casualties report gives 464; other accounts put the figure as high as 850, and some evidence suggests the true toll was more than 1,600 because of unregistered passengers. She lies on her starboard side with the seabed at 32 m and the port flank rising to about 12 m. DIVING ETIQUETTE: the wreck is treated by many Egyptians and by much of the dive community as a grave. Human remains are still inside; several entrances were welded shut specifically to stop the bodies being disturbed. Penetration is widely regarded as unacceptable and a number of Safaga dive guides refuse to permit it or will not dive the site at all. Photography of personal effects and any removal of artefacts is condemned. Divers commonly report the experience as sombre or unsettling. Dive it, if at all, as an exterior circuit and treat it as a memorial, not a playground.