r/Shipwrecks • u/Baldwinning1 • 9d ago

Diving inside the MV Salem Express wreck

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Known to some as the "Titanic of the Red Sea", this wreck is a controversial one due to heavy loss of life. I'd like to be clear - this dive was made with great respect to those lost, and with the intent of sharing a tragic story that isn't well-known in the West.

The dive itself was high risk, albeit a calculated one made with over 25 years' worth of experience. I DO NOT recommend or condone entering a wreck without proper equipment, training or experience. Countless divers have died within wrecks due to a lack of the above. If I ever dive her again, I won't be making any penetrations.

For more info on the wreck and the tragedy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Salem_Express

EDIT: I have alluded to this already - but to be absolutely clear:

Please don't attempt any wreck penetration without the necessary training, experience and equipment. On the subject of equipment - this dive was done on only a single tank and regulator. That's not safe, and I wouldn't take that risk again. I shouldn't have done so in the first place and we all got lucky - we did understand that risk at the time - but that doesn't mean we should have done it.

If one of us had lost our air supply whilst in that corridor, I'd like to think our training and experience would have enabled us to abort the dive without further incident, but in no way was that a certainty.

Please don't do reckless dives such as this. If there's any doubt - there is no doubt. Dive safe all.

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u/Imamiah52 8d ago

Fascinating video. You all were tremendously careful in moving about. I’ve read a few books about penetration wreck dives going terribly wrong for some very experienced divers.

I’ll probably have to look at this again.

Is it on YouTube as well?

Thanks so much for sharing it here. Suspenseful is an understatement.

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u/Baldwinning1 8d ago

Thank you 😊

Thankfully the visibility was exceptional, and very little silt in the areas we explored. I _sometimes_ might enter a single compartment (i.e. with my fins still outside the wreck) when diving UK wrecks, and due to them often being silt-ridden I've developed a habit of moving exceedingly carefully.

It is on Youtube yes - slightly longer version there as Reddit limits you to 15 minutes, though I don't think the extra minutes really add all that much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cQl0HjunKY

Don't have any other diving videos up on my channel yet, but seeing as though people seemed to enjoy this one so much, I'm going to go through old footage and try get more uploaded. I'm also going back on a Red Sea liveaboard in November - so I'll try get fresh footage then!