The most commonly dived wrecks from this period are:
Carnatic, Dunraven, Kingston, Ulysses and Numidia
The bow of Carnatic, probably the best known wreck image from the Red Sea
Carnatic struck the reef at Abu Nuhas in 1869, and over the next thirty years or so a good number of other vessels ended up on the bottom of the sea in various places throughout the Red Sea. Why no wrecks before 1869? Why so many shortly after that date and what were they all doing in the Red Sea in the first place?
There are Red Sea wrecks dating from before 1869 (The P&O paddlesteamer Alma, for example, struck a reef not far from the mouth of the Red Sea near Aden in 1859 without loss of life) it's just that the wrecks we know today are in the Egyptian Red Sea where the dive tourism industry is very strong and lie in in sport diving depths.
The answers to the rest of the question is complex. First, wind is a fact of life in the Red Sea and blows almost continually, and almost always from the quadrant between north and west. Any ship attempting to navigate northwards up the Red Sea must therefore go against the wind. It wasn't impossible to do this in sailing ships, but it was hard work, and the Red Sea only came into regular use as a seaway when steam-engines began to replace sails. At the same time the British Empire was reaching its zenith, and the Imperial grip on India in particular was very tight. Governing India, not to mention extracting profit from the sub-continent, demanded regular traffic between the two countries, and in the mid-nineteenth century that meant regular merchant shipping going to and fro. Once steam made the journey north as simple as the journey south through the Red Sea, and especially after the Suez Canal opened in 1869, merchant vessels passing through the Red Sea increased rapidly in number. The reefs in the Red Sea, especially the reefs of the Gulf of Suez that lie just below the surface of the water, were not well known or charted and so it was inevitable that ships would strike. As a result the British, and to a lesser degree the French, built lighthouses and beacons throughout the Red Sea, amny of which are still visible today.
Carnatic
Forepeak of Carnatic, covered in colourful marine growth
Carnatic was an iron built sail and screw vessel of 1772 tons operated by P&O on a regular run between Suez (The Canal was opened just a couple of months after she sank) and India. In September 1869 she took on board a cargo including gold specie for the Indian mint, copper ingots and bales of calico cotton from the mills of Manchester, 34 passengers and a crew of some 200. She left Suez at 10.00hrs on Sunday 12th September in good weather and struck the reef at Abu Nuhas around 01.00hrs the following day. She seemed stable, and after attempts at lightening her and pulling her off the reef with stern anchors failed the crew and passengers settled down to wait for a passing steamer to rescue them. The following night her pumps were overwhelmed and the decision was made to abandon ship and take the passengers to nearby Shadwan Island. As the passengers began to fill her lifeboast she broke her back and sank, with the loss of 27 crew and passengers. The survivors made the crossing to Shadwan and were almost immediately rescued by the passing P&O steamer Sumatra. At the subsequent enquiry the Master of the Carnatic, Captain P B Jones, was held responsible for the disaster and lost his ticket for nine months, though actually never went to sea again.
Marine life on the forward section of Carnatic
Diving Carnatic is very straightforward. When she broke her back and sank she ended up at the foot of the reef apparently reassembled into a whole ship but canted steeply over on her port side. Her forward section and bow are intact, then a long broken section leads to her intact stern section and her galleried square stern, looking like something from a Hollywood pirate movie, and her intact propellor and rudder. It's easy to cover the full length of the wreck in one dive, and possible to penetrate inside the forward and stern sections. Almost all the wood of her decking has long since rotted away, leaving her iron structure clear to view. She's also gained a huge amount of marine growth and is a fantastically colourful wreck. If you do go inside, try not to touch her remains, the marine life on her is as delicate as it is beautiful. At the rear end of the forward section and the forward end of her stern section her masts stretch out long fingers on the sea-bed, and with a bit of care it is possible to find the remains of her engines and boilers near the back of the central broken section. Liveaboards usually moor around the southern edge of Abu Nuhas reef where there is more shelter from the wind, though on those very rare days when the wind is suitable it is possible to moor directly over the wreck. Divers transfer around the reef by zodiac and will usually drop into the water over the forward section. The maximum depth on her is around 24m at the stern, so the best plan is to head for the stern first and make your way back to the bow. A line is usually attached to the highest point of the forward section and you'll get a good view of the wreck as you ascend and make your safety stop.
View from the safety stop on Carnatic
Dunraven
Dunraven was an iron-hulled sail and screw vessel built in 1873, but she was a square, no-nonsense working freighter without the fancy schooner bow or galleried stern of Carnatic. She came to grief on Beacon Rock in the early hours of the 25th April 1876 as a result of a series of navigational and sighting errors that put her miles out of position. In fact, it was only when her Master and crew were picked up by local Bedouin fishermen later that day that they discovered where they were, though the clearly visible Sinai coast must have given them a clue. Once again the Master, Captain E R Care, was held liable. He lost his ticket for a year, at the end of which his employers, the Milburn Line, gave him back his job and command of a new ship.
The stern of Dunraven, with her intact prop and rudder
Diving Dunraven is very straightforward, and provides an excellent opportunity for wreck penetration. She lies at the foot of Beacon Rock almost completely inverted in a maximum depth of 28m, though the crow's nests from her masts and other fittings from her upperworks lie on the sea-bed around the wreck to 30m depth. Boats can either moor over her or in the shelter of Beacon Rock near the modern warning beacon. Divers usually drop over the wreck from the dive-boat or after tyranferring by zodiac, and it may be necessary to descend a few metres before you see the wreck if the vis is less than normal. Once the wreck is in sight orientate yourself and head for the sea-bed about thirty metres out from her stern and on the side of the wreck away from the reef, to see the crow's nest from the aft mast.
Hull of Dunraven, broken and collapsing, and easily penetrated through her side or under her stern railings
Cross back to the wreck, looking up to see the curve of her hull and the imposing prop and rudder, then enter under her stern railings and turn left to head toward her bow. Look up and you'll see her propshaft, and as you near the front of this section you'll find your way blocked by a large cylindrical object, one of her boilers. Just to your right at this point is her compound steam engine, completely intact and worth a good look around, before you continue forward and pass by the left side of the boiler. Turn around and you'll see both boilers, now fallen away from their mountings, before heading forward again and emerging from the stern section of the wreck over the top of the keel of her forward section. The forward section is sort of penetrable in places, but it's not really worth the effort, so continue to her bow before leaving the wreck and heading up the reef to your safety stop.
Whip coral frames Whirlwind moored over the wreck of the Dunraven
Kingston
The broken hull of the Kingston
Kingston was a collier. Coal was vital for the new steamers to operate, and early steamships were inefficient, coal-hungry vessels that need to re-supply frequently. Ships had been using the port of Aden at the very top of the Indian Ocean as a watering and victualling point for hundreds of years. Ships making the passage from India via the Red Sea had to pass Aden, making it an ideal place for a coaling station. Since Aden had no natural coal reserves it all had to be taken there aboard ship. Kingston was one of many ships engaged in this essential, though glamourless, trade. She struck Shag Rock just before dawn in January 1881, the rising sun and a flat sea preventing the lookouts seeing the reef that killed their ship.
Aft mast crow's nest with the hull of the Kingston behind
Diving Kingston can involve a long zodiac ride from the southern end of Shag Rock, unless you're fortunate to have the right winds to moor over the wreck. She's a small wreck, with only the stern third remaining, she was clearly travelling at high speed when she hit the reef and debris from her collision can sometimes be seen spread over the top of the reef if the water level is low enough. The maximum depth of the wreck is around 14m, where her intact prop and rudder sit beneath the curve of her rounded stern. From there follow the starboard side of the wreck and ascend until you can penetrate what's left of her after section and finish by swimming forward again at top-deck level to see her spare four-bladed propellor and finally her boilers in just 4m of water. When you're finished with the wreck leave her and let the current push you along the reef until you're ready to surface. The current can sometimes pick you up and swoosh you almost all the way back to the south of Shag Rock in an hour's dive, and sometimes there's no current at all. The reef boasts fabulous hard and soft corals and profuse fish life.
Kingston's boilers, now in just 4m of water
Ulysses
Interior of Ulysses
Ulysses struck Gubal Seghir in the small hours of 16th August 1887. Quite why is a mystery to me. Abu Nuhas, Beacon Rock and Shag Rock are all below water-level and hard to see, but the reef that Ulysses hit is the fringing reef running around Gubal Seghir Island, a large and obvious landmass. Regardless of the reason, she struck and was held fast before sinking a fortnight later. That fortnight is the key to her significance. Ulysses was owned and operated by the Ocean Steamship Company, itself owned and run by the Holt brothers, Alfred and Phillip. Alfred Holt was a railway engineer by training and a man who has a strong claim to be the father of the modern steamship. He built his vessels enormously strongly, and designed and built high-pressure boilers and compound steam-engines that made them the most economical vessels afloat, and hence very profitable to their owners. Ulysses was one of their earlier ships, but clearly she was strong and well-built.
Batfish under the shelter of her mast
Diving Ulysses starts with a zodiac ride from the shelter of Bluff Point Lagoon and divers will drop near the wreck. There is often current running over the wreck so you'll be dropped to drift onto the wreck with the current. Ulysses lies almost at right angles to the reef and steeply canted over on her port side, with her intact prop and rudder her deepest point at about 28m. Use the wreck to shelter from any current whilst you explore. She's easily penetrable for the almost the whole of her length, though she's only intact as far foward as her engine room area, with the rest of her length broken and flattened on the reef top. Her construction is very similar to that of Carnatic. As you swim forward you'll get slightly shallower until you can apparently get no further forward. When you get to this point, swim towards toward the keel of the wreck and follow the prop-shaft forward until you see a large metal oval, big enough to easily allow a kitted diver through into a small metal room, at the front of which is the flywheel of Holt's fabulous compound engine. The engine itself must lie just forward of this, but it can't be seen. You can get out of the room the way you came or swim up and past the flywheel onto the top of the wreck. You can actually see the flywheel without the penetration, but where's the fun in that? About here a mast slopes steeply down to the sea-bed, often sheltering a group of batfish, and below it is a set of winches that usually have a scorpionfish resting on them. If you have time and gas at the start of the dive a large pipe lies just off the wreck and is a nice swim through alive with colour. The wreck also boasts a huge population of Sergeant Mjors, stripy little fish that turnm the wole wreck purple with their eggs in mid-year. When you leave the wreck to drift with the current you'll find the fish life here is excellent.
The flywheel of Holt's engine
Numidia
The intact engine room and triple-expansion engine of Numidia lies between 30 and 40m
Numidia was a large vessel for her day, 6400 tons and 450 feet long, and completed in 1901, so not strictly nineteenth century but this is the group of wrecks with which she fits best. Her maiden voyage was an uneventful trip from Glasgow to Calcutta and back to Liverpool, where she loaded for her second trip. By July 20th 1901 she was en-route down the open Red Sea. She had successfully navigated the tricky reefs around the Gulf of Suez, passed Abu Nuhas and was in open water when the Brother Islands lighthouse, built by the British in 1883, came into sight. Her Master gave orders for a small course change and went below for a nap, leaving orders to be called when they were level with the light. Her deck officer must have simply fallen asleep at that point, because Numidia steamed directly onto Big Borther Island directly in line with the light. Her captain spent the next seven weeks supervising the safe unloading of her cargo before she sank.
The intact railway-wheels that marked the top of this wreck were pulled off the reef when an idiot dive-guide tied his boat to them, but there are other railway remains still visible at the top of the wreck
Diving Numidia involves a zodiac ride from the southern tip of Big Brother Island, where dive-boats always moor for what shelter they can get from the weather. A negative entry is recommended as there can be strong currents running over the northern plateau and you can be blown past the wreck if you stay on the surface too long. The wreck itself lies at right angles to the reef. Her bow is shattered, and the front of the wreck now lies in 10m of water, but she is otherwise completely intact and upright. The best plan is to simply swim down her length until you're as deep as you want to go - she drops to a maximum of 80m or more - then turn around and ascend back up the wreck. When you've seen enough, leave the wreck and allow the current to take you along the fantastic wall of Big Brother until you're ready to surface.
More Wrecks
More wrecks from this period lie in the same area. There are, for example, reports of an iron built steamer beneath the bow of Ulysses, and across the channel from Kingston is another wreck, possibly the Carina. Up the side of Sha'ab Ali are at least two, and possibly more, wrecks waiting for proper exploration, and there will be others in deep water or that have simply not been found yet.
