Rosalie Moller
The Thistlegorm’s forgotten sister in the same story: bombed by the same squadron two nights later, sunk in the same anchorage, and left almost perfectly intact in 50m — which is why almost nobody sees her.
This wreck is a grave
Two of her crew were never recovered. The ship is their grave.
- Built
- Built 1910 by Barclay Curle, Glasgow, as the Francis
- Lost
- 8 October 1941 — Bombed by a German Heinkel He 111, two nights after the Thistlegorm
- Ship
- British collier, 108m
- Depth
- 30–50m
- Diving it
- Liveaboard or a technical day boat from Hurghada, west of Gubal Island. Not a recreational dive
What happened
She was launched on the Clyde in 1910 as the Francis, spent two decades in the coal trade, and was sold in 1931 to the Moller Line of Shanghai, who renamed her Rosalie Moller and kept her under the British flag.
In October 1941 she was anchored in the Strait of Gubal at Safe Anchorage H, loaded with Welsh coal, waiting for the Suez Canal to clear — exactly the situation that had already killed the Thistlegorm two nights earlier, a few miles away.
On the night of 7 October the same German squadron came back looking for what was left of the convoy. A single bomb hit her number three hold. She stayed afloat for several hours and went down at 01:40 on 8 October. Two of her crew were never found.
Because she sank slowly and upright, she is intact in a way the Thistlegorm is not: masts standing, decks readable, the starboard anchor still deployed where it was dropped in 1941. She sits at 45–50m, which puts her beyond recreational limits and has kept her almost untouched.
What is down there
- A complete ship, upright, with her masts still standing
- The starboard anchor chain running out exactly as it was let go
- The bridge and engine room intact, thick with soft coral at depth
- Enormous shoals of glassfish, and the resident batfish that meet divers at the shot
Conditions
- Deep, dark and often with current at the shot line
- Bottom time is short at 50m even on trimix; most divers see one part of the ship per dive
- Visibility is usually excellent, which is what makes the scale visible at all
What to watch out for
- This is a technical dive. Decompression obligation, gas planning and a team who have done it before are not optional, and the nearest chamber is a boat ride away.
- It is a war grave: two men are still aboard.
Is it worth it?
For qualified technical divers, this is the best wreck in the northern Red Sea — better preserved than the Thistlegorm and without the crowd. For everyone else it is a wreck to read about rather than dive, and there is no shame in that.
This is planning and history, not a dive briefing. Conditions change; your guide on the day is the authority. Diving emergency numbers and the coast’s recompression chambers are on our emergency contacts page.
Also in this bay — Hurghada
Dive sites
- Careless ReefIntermediate
Two pinnacles north-east of Giftun with a dramatic drop-off, long known for moray eels and for currents that decide the dive plan.
- Sha’ab Abu NuhasIntermediate
A shallow reef at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez that has claimed at least four ships — the Giannis D, Carnatic, Chrisoula K and Kimon M — all divable in a day.
- SS ThistlegormAdvanced
A British armed merchant ship sunk by air attack in 1941, still holding its wartime cargo of motorcycles, trucks and rifles. Widely considered one of the best wreck dives in the world.
- Giftun IslandsBeginner
Hurghada’s house reefs: a cluster of sheltered sites in a protected area, where most of the coast’s divers make their first Red Sea dive.
Wrecks
- SS ThistlegormIntermediate
A British war freighter still loaded with the equipment of an army that never received it — motorcycles, trucks, rifles and two railway locomotives — and the best-known wreck dive in the world outside Truk Lagoon.
- Giannis DIntermediate
The most photographed wreck at Abu Nuhas, and the most disorienting: the whole stern section lies canted hard over, so every corridor inside it runs at an angle your inner ear refuses to accept.
- SS CarnaticIntermediate
A Victorian P&O steamer that has been on the reef since 1869, so thoroughly colonised that her ribs now read as architecture rather than as a ship. The oldest wreck dived on this coast.
- Chrisoula KBeginner
The one carrying Italian floor tiles, still stacked in the holds forty years later. The shallowest and most forgiving wreck at Abu Nuhas, and the one novice wreck divers should meet first.
- Kimon MAdvanced
Carrying lentils from Turkey to India when she hit the reef in 1978. The deepest and least visited of the Abu Nuhas wrecks, because she sits where the weather does.
Snorkelling
- Giftun IslandsBoat trip
Hurghada’s standard day trip, and for good reason: proper coral gardens in a protected area, 45 minutes out of the marina.
Kitesurfing
- HurghadaImprover
Wind, schools and cheap lessons in and around the city — less refined than El Gouna, considerably cheaper, and more variable.
The town guide for Hurghada